Dimitrios Psarrakis, a former EU economist, stated that U.S. lawmakers are attempting to align with the EU’s crypto regulations as established by the Markets in Crypto-Assets legislation. Psarrakis shared his statement in an August 26 video posted by the European Crypto Initiative on X.
“We wanted to create a faster mover’s advantage for the European Union,” said Psarrakis, European Union Economist. “Now, did we achieve this? From the texts I see coming from the other side of the Atlantic, with all those bills introduced by the Congressmen, the Senators of the United States, I see the footprint of MiCA in every suggestion they make.”
According to a release by Elliptic, the EU’s new Markets in Crypto-Assets regulations were approved in April 2023 and took effect on June 30, 2024, for all stablecoin issuers. The regulations ushered in “a new era of regulatory oversight for innovators in the crypto space.” This new rule states that “issuers must now obtain approval from relevant members of state authorities before offering their tokens within the EU or when offering stablecoins pegged to the euro or other member state currency.”
According to the World Economic Forum, since 2023 federal legislative efforts in the U.S. involving cryptocurrencies have generally stalled, and no new developments have been made regarding a regulatory framework. The Financial Innovation and Technology (FIT) for the 21st Century Act and the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act are examples of two bills that would help “define when a cryptocurrency is a security or a commodity, expand oversight of the industry, and clarify the roles of different bodies in managing crypto.” However, since their introduction, there has been no further progress regarding what would otherwise be a beginning to a comprehensive regulatory framework.
Global Legal Insights reported that beginning in 2022, the United States Congress started introducing more bills aimed at providing clarity to the emerging crypto sector. One example is the Responsible Financial Innovation Act (RFIA), which was designed to “provide regulatory clarity for agencies charged with supervising digital asset markets, provide a strong, tailored regulatory framework for stablecoins, integrate digital assets into existing tax and banking law and spur innovation in the field of digital assets.”
Another example of a bill introduced by bipartisan senators is the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act (DCCPA), which authorizes the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) “to regulate ‘digital commodity platforms’ and ‘digital commodity’ trading,” according to Global Legal Insights. The CFTC would have complete jurisdiction over “digital commodity” trades except for certain transactions that involve consumers using a digital commodity solely for purchasing a “good or service.”
According to his LinkedIn profile, Dimitrios Psarrakis is the co-founder of ValueVerse, which is “a strategy consulting company that specializes on the economics of tokenization.” Psarrakis is also a member of the Board of Directors for the Global Blockchain Business Council, a Virtual Assets Expert at OSCE security firm, and a Senior Fellow of the Wharton Blockchain and Digital Assets Project. He has nearly twenty years of experience in financial regulation, financial services, and corporate regulation with a strong background in economic policy.
