A proposal that would have effectively banned the mining and transactions of energy-intensive cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin in the European Union failed to win approval by a parliamentary committee, as the bloc pushes ahead with regulation of the fast-growing sector.
The EU’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee voted on a final draft of the Markets in Crypto-assets (MiCA) legislation on Monday, which included a clause pledging to make cryptoassets traded or issued within the bloc “subject to minimum environmental sustainability standards.” A final tally of the committee’s voting showed the proposed clause was defeated with 23 votes in favor, 30 against and six abstentions.
