The headquarters of the newly established Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) of the European Union will be located in Frankfurt, the financial hub of Germany. The AMLA will commence its operations by the middle of 2025.
The AMLA will be granted the power to supervise financial entities that are considered high-risk and operate across borders, including crypto firms. It will collaborate with financial intelligence units and regulators in other EU countries to ensure effective oversight.
In a press release on February 22, the Council of the EU and the European Council announced Frankfurt as the chosen city for the AMLA’s headquarters. Notably, Frankfurt is also home to the European Central Bank. Alternative locations that were considered included Brussels, Dublin, Madrid, Paris, Rome, Riga, Vilnius, and Vienna.
The general board of the AMLA will consist of representatives from regulators and financial intelligence units of all EU member states. The executive board, known as the governing body, will comprise the chair and five independent full-time members.
In related news, the CEO of VanEck Europe, the investment management firm, highlighted the European Union’s skepticism towards crypto investments despite the growing popularity of Bitcoin ETFs.
The Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA), the first comprehensive framework for cryptocurrencies in the EU, came into effect in June 2023. However, the regulations concerning “asset-referenced tokens” and “e-money tokens,” which primarily include stablecoins, are expected to be implemented in June 2024. The rules for “crypto-asset service providers,” such as trading platforms, wallet providers, and cryptocurrency exchanges and services, will take effect in December 2024.
Meanwhile, the EU has been actively shaping regulations on the usage of artificial intelligence (AI). On February 13, the European Parliament’s Internal Market and Civil Liberties Committees approved the preliminary agreement on the European AI Act, the world’s first legislation focused on AI. The EU AI Act aims to establish protective measures, including copyright protection for creators, in response to generative AI models. It also prohibits AI applications that threaten citizens’ rights, such as biometric categorization and social scoring. The first parliamentary vote on the AI Act is scheduled for April 2024.
In an interview with a magazine, Vance Spencer, a permabull in the crypto industry, expressed his belief in the inevitability of cryptocurrencies and shared his enthusiasm for investing in them.