EU’s MiCA Bill Moves Forward Without Bitcoin Limiting Provision

In the past days, EU lawmakers have been negotiating a mandate for the proposed landmark legislation for digital assets, which does not contain a provision seeking to limit the use of proof-of-work cryptocurrencies in the EU, before it moves on to the trilogue negotiations between the parliament, council and commission.

Earlier in the week, Stefan Berger, the parliamentarian overseeing the MiCA framework, expressed concerns that other EU leaders in favor of limiting the use of proof-of-work cryptocurrencies would make one last attempt to take the legislation to a full parliamentary vote ahead of the trilogue.

The parliament has not challenged the negotiation mandate for MiCA, Stefan Berger tweeted early on Friday. The deadline for challenging the mandate ended at midnight on Thursday, according to Berger.

The provision in question was defeated in a close committee vote on March 14.

EU officials are also debating a number of issues including the inclusion of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized finance (DeFi) in the MiCA package, as well as which EU agencies should be given supervision powers over the crypto space.

Berger says the MiCA trilogue is set to begin next week.