MiCA would have forced Proof-of-Work blockchains, like the one used by Bitcoin, to meet "minimum environmental sustainability standards."
Bitcoin has avoided a de facto ban in Europe after a controversial proposal was voted down in parliament.
The EU's Markets in Cryptoassets Regulation — known as MiCA for short — would have forced Proof-of-Work blockchains, like the one used by Bitcoin, to meet "minimum environmental sustainability standards."
But according to Unstoppable Finance's head of strategy Patrick Hansen, 32 politicians on the Economic and Monetary Affairs Commitee voted against this proposal — with just 24 in favor.
He went on to describe the result as a "big relief and political success for the Bitcoin and crypto community in the EU."
This result means that MiCA will no longer tackle the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining — and instead, these activities would fall under the EU's sustainable finance taxonomy by Jan. 1, 2025.
But the crypto community is not out of the woods yet. Those who lost the vote could spark a discussion in a plenary session of the European Parliament if they have support from a tenth of MEPs. As Hansen warned:
"That would bring the discussion around PoW into the high-level policy arena. As we can't predict how that would play out, it should be prevented."
In a Twitter Spaces conversation after the vote, Ledger — a hardware wallet company that had spoken out against the MiCA proposals — said the drama underlines the importance of "staying on top of things regarding regulation at all times."
