Dutch Central Bank to Bring Crypto-Business Under Licensing Regime to Curb Malicious Use

In order to curb the use of cryptocurrencies for malicious activities such as money laundering and the funding of terrorism, the central bank of Netherlands, De Nederlandsche Bank, has decided that it would be issuing licenses to cryptocurrency service providers.

On December 11, a major Dutch news outlet, DeTelegraaf, reported that the Dutch Central Bank is concerned about the wrong use of cryptocurrencies and has decided that crypto-service providers and business will soon have to obtain a license to continue its operations in the country.

While the complete regulatory framework around cryptocurrency is still unknown, the following move by the Dutch Central Bank is extremely positive.

This move would not just regulate the cryptocurrencies, but will also help in keeping it clean from all wrongdoing.

Prior to this move, the Dutch regulator has had a mixed review about cryptocurrencies.

In August 2018, an executive at the Dutch Central Bank announced that the Central Bank doesn't recognize cryptocurrencies as "Real money," but doesn't plan to ban them, either.

The environment seems to be changing as a lot of countries in Europe are individually making attempts to make cryptocurrency mainstream.

Apart from the Netherlands, Spain's ruling party has also announced that it would be introducing a draft bill to regulate both blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

Several other countries in the European Union have also acted positively towards cryptocurrencies.

While Switzerland gave the world the first multi-exchange traded product and opened doors for institutions to invest in cryptos, Germany's second-largest stock exchange, Boerse Stuttgart Group, also announced that it was ready to launch a cryptocurrency platform in the first half of 2019.