Crypto Conglomerates Need to Be Regulated, Bank of France Says

International cooperation is needed to regulate crypto conglomerates, Governor of the Banque de France François Villeroy de Galhau said at VivaTech event in Paris on Friday.

(Bloomberg) — International cooperation is needed to regulate crypto conglomerates, Governor of the Banque de France François Villeroy de Galhau said at VivaTech event in Paris on Friday. 

It is not sufficient to regulate one legal entity in one jurisdiction, Villeroy said, adding that in the US crypto companies have various legal entities operating in various jurisdictions, hence the need for international collaboration.

While he stressed that the European Union was ahead in crypto regulation, Villeroy touted that a new version of the EU regulation, “MiCA 2”, would probably be needed to tackle crypto conglomerates.

In April, European lawmakers gave their final blessing to the EU’s Markets in Cryptoassets, or MiCA, a law that will give the bloc its first rules to govern the crypto industry. This regulation is the first time that governments have tried to supervise the nascent industry on such a scale and follows the collapse of several big participants including the crypto exchange FTX.

Crypto lending, decentralized finance and nonfungible tokens are all beyond MiCA’s scope, leading some figures including European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde to already make calls for a MiCA 2.

“Decentralized finance is only a new technology. You have actors using this technology for financial services, they need to be regulated. Same action, same risks, same rules,” Villeroy said.

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