The 6th issue of our legal round-up.

We continue with a series of weekly round-ups prepared by Mercuryo Legal Counsel Adam Berker to keep you updated on cryptocurrency rules.

Crypto is Now Legally Recognized in Texas

Texas has reached a massive milestone by adding cryptocurrencies to its commercial regulation. This amendment will help clarify and enforce the rights and obligations of parties that use crypto in sales and lease contracts or establish virtual currency as lien in their loan agreements.

SEC Investigates Uniswap

SEC has started to strengthen the control regarding DeFi projects, and Uniswap is the first DeFi that fell under SEC’s radar. As we have mentioned before, the main reason behind the new arrangements is that most DeFis do not identify customers before providing services to them.

Consequently, services may be provided to the US residents, violating the country’s federal and state laws. These laws often prescribe crypto companies to be registered as Money Services Businesses and, where applicable, obtain a Money Transmitter or other licenses for crypto companies.

Europeans Want Crypto Regulations

Currently, crypto is already regulated by some European countries and not by the EU, as most of the poll respondents wish. Nevertheless, the totally independent approach of the member states may lead to contradictive regulations, where different states determine the status of virtual currencies and requirements for crypto service providers in different ways.

Therefore, the best solution for keeping the balance is for the EU’s Directives to establish general regulative goals for member states. The EU countries will have to implement the provisions of the Directives as they wish. An example of crypto-related regulation is the EU’s Anti-money Laundering directive that established requirements for crypto companies’ customer identification.

Controversial Stablecoins: Currency or Assets?

Most of the regulators do not share the enthusiasm of El Salvador to recognize crypto as a legal tender. For instance, the South African Reserve Bank states that cryptocurrencies do not meet all the criteria of currencies since they are only accepted by the participants of this ecosystem.

Yet, the European Central Bank president claims that stablecoins need to be considered assets, and corresponding authorities should supervise their declared fixed exchange rates. Such an approach may be related to the governments’ desire to keep the monetary policy under control and not allow unregulated currencies to enter their markets.

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