The Legal Status of Cryptocurrencies In the World. EU: Estonia

12 FEB 2020 10:45

Recently, the crypto world has been filled with news of the increasing interest of central banks in cryptocurrencies. Meanwhile, Orion.finance team decided to study the legality of existing cryptocurrencies and share the results of this research in the series of articles on the different legal status of cryptocurrencies worldwide.

It’s noteworthy that cryptocurrencies are currently legal in many countries. According to the Coin.dance, Bitcoin is completely legal in at least 111 countries. At the same time, cryptos are completely illegal in Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Pakistan, Qatar, Macedonia, Saudi Arabia, Vanuatu and Vietnam.

Countries, which allow using cryptocurrencies, classify this asset in a different way. Some consider the crypto as an account unit whereas others see it either as an investment asset or the means of payment etc.

For example, the European Central Bank classifies bitcoin as a convertible decentralized virtual currency. Under EU law, traditional financial regulation doesn’t operate the cryptocurrencies because they are not used by traditional financial institutions like banks. At the same time, the crypto-related operations are not subject to VAT and it is good news for traders.

Yet sometimes the European Parliament makes controversial proposals. In 2016, the European Parliament supported establishment of the working group on money laundering with digital currencies. However, in real practice, the European Parliament began to tighten the control and monitoring of the crypto business.

In general, each EU country determines cryptocurrencies pursuant to local legislation. Let’s see what is really going on right now.

Estonia

Estonian government regards the cryptocurrencies as “value represented in digital form”. Estonia is known as a paradise for crypto startups. Some time ago, Estonia easily licensed the majority of crypto-related projects. However, in 2017, due to the Anti Money Laundering and Terrorism Finance Act establishment, licensing became much more complicated. As a result, control over crypto-startups got really tight.

Nowadays, Estonian cryptocurrency exchanges are considered legal entities of financial relations granted that they have a Virtual Currency Exchange Service License, the Virtual Currency Wallet Service License, and are strictly pursuant to the KYC rules.

By the way, a couple of years ago, Estonia planned to create its own cryptocurrency called estcoin. This suggestion can be found in the speculative government plan. However, the EU has criticized Estonia therefore Estonian government decided to suspend the development of the national cryptocurrency. Yes, the EU keeps abreast and quickly suppresses dangerous initiatives of its subjects despite of the declared independence of every individual country in terms of their attitude towards cryptocurrencies.

This is what cryptocurrency regulation in Estonia looks like. Stay with us and we will keep you informed about interesting approaches to the legalization of crypto!