EAEU unlikely to find common ground on crypto regulation, official says

Member states of the Eurasian Economic Union, or EAEU, have been struggling to come up with a shared stance regarding cryptocurrency regulations, according to an official.

Iya Malkina, assistant chairman of the Eurasian Economic Commission Board, stated that EAEU member states did not support a recent initiative for a uniform cryptocurrency regulatory framework within the union.

In a press briefing Wednesday, Malkina explained that the Eurasian Economic Commission received several proposals to synchronize regulations in the industry of blockchain and crypto. The EEC also recommended developing a basic uniform regulatory framework within the EAEU with a single glossary and principles. “However, this proposal did not find support,” the official said.

Malkina said that the EEC has been actively analyzing the impact of cryptocurrencies on the macroeconomic stability of the EAEU member states since December 2017.

The EAEU is an economic union of states located in Eastern Europe and Western and Central Asia, with member countries including Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia and others. The union was formed in 2014 to facilitate the free movement of goods and services as well as provide common policies in the macroeconomic sphere.

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the EAEU has been seeking to find an approach to promote cryptocurrency regulation, publishing its first report on issues associated with crypto regulation in 2019. Previously, the Russian Ministry of Finance urged that the EAEU will have to launch its own digital currency to circumvent sanctions by the United States.