The European Parliament has granted its final approval to the EU AI Act, which is one of the world’s first comprehensive sets of regulations for artificial intelligence. The bill will undergo a second vote in April and is expected to be published in the Official Journal of the European Union in May. The EU AI Act categorizes machine learning models into four groups based on the level of risk they pose to society, with high-risk models facing the most stringent rules. High-risk applications include critical infrastructures, education and training, safety components of products, essential public and private services, law enforcement activities that may infringe on individuals’ rights, migration and border control management, and administration of justice and democratic processes.
Additionally, EU financial regulators aim to introduce more guidelines for stablecoin regulation under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) framework. They plan to publish draft regulatory standards for stablecoin issuers in handling complaints. The European Banking Authority has already released the Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) for efficiently resolving complaints from asset reference token (ART) holders. These guidelines outline the procedures and standards that stablecoin issuers must follow to effectively manage complaints.
Meanwhile, United States President Joe Biden has proposed a 30% tax on electricity used by cryptocurrency miners in his administration’s budget proposal for 2025. If implemented, crypto mining companies would be required to report the type and amount of electricity they use. They would also need to report the value of externally purchased electricity. Miners who lease computational capacity would have to disclose the value of the electricity provided by the leasing company. The value of electricity used would serve as the basis for taxation. The tax proposal would be implemented in three phases, starting with a 10% tax in the first year, followed by 20% in the second year, and 30% in the third year, applicable for taxable years after December 31, 2024.
In Nigeria, the government has demanded that Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, disclose information about its top 100 users in the country as part of an ongoing crackdown on the platform. Nigerian authorities have also requested Binance to provide its transaction history from the past six months. In response, Binance attempted to engage in a dialogue with the authorities, but two senior executives, Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla, were detained by local prosecutors. Despite Binance delisting naira transactions and stopping peer-to-peer naira transactions in February, the executives remain in custody. Opinions among the local crypto community vary, with some supporting the government’s actions while others disagree.
The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) has announced the adoption of a new digital assets law, a security law, and amendments to existing laws. The DIFC, a special economic zone with over 5,000 residents, operates under its own legal system based on English law. The Digital Assets Law, which consists of seven pages of text and appendices, has been passed, while an amendment to update previous laws for digital assets has also been approved. However, the amended law is not currently available online. The DIFC stated that the changes made electronic records functionally equivalent to paper records.
Democratic Party Senators Jack Reed and Laphonza Butler have expressed opposition to the approval of any more cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs) by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). They argue that approving such ETFs would expose investors to thinly traded markets that are susceptible to fraud and manipulation. Currently, there are eight proposed spot Ether ETF applications awaiting SEC approval, and there is hope that other altcoins may follow. Reed and Butler also urged the SEC not to use the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs as a precedent for further approvals, stating that while the Bitcoin market has displayed weaknesses, it is more established and closely scrutinized compared to smaller cryptocurrencies.