European Central Bank Pushes for Tighter Digital Currency Control

The European Central Bank (ECB) has urged its members to impose tighter controls on the activities of companies that exchange virtual currencies or custody them for their clients.
The comments come as the European Union movestoward extending the economic bloc’s anti-money laundering statutes to cover digital currency activities. At the same time, the ECB has been conducting its own investigations of both digital currencies like bitcoin as well as its underlying technology.
Perhaps most notable in the ECB’s legal opinion, published earlier this week, is its assertion that the broader adoption of digital currencies “could in principle affect the central banks’ control over the supply of money” and impact its role in seeking price stability.

This post was published at Coin Desk on October 18, 2016.