Dutch Finance Minister Advises Government on Cryptocurrency

In a six-page letter to the Dutch senate and house, Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra has outlined his concerns over the rapid and dramatic growth in cryptocurrencies.

Hoekstra emphasized that there has been little time to understand and react to the changing landscape and that the current supervision and regulatory framework is ill equipped to deal with it. Because of the cross-border nature of the technology and markets, closing those gaps requires a unified approach across governments and borders. The minister will actively be working in a European context, but the entire process will take time and coordination between disparate governments and agencies.

Like most other policy makers, Hoekstra sees the value in promoting and developing the technology behind cryptocurrency, such as cryptography and distributed ledger technology. However, in addition to the concern over fraud and hacking, the minister also expressed concern over the immature and unregulated nature of the market and how to better inform consumers of the potential risks.

Hoekstra described the following as starting points in his assessment of possible policies and regulations to control the risks associated with cryptocurrencies:

• Gaps in consumer and investor protection must be true need to be closed, but measures must be proportionate.
• The integrity of the financial system must be guaranteed.
• The innovative technique behind cryptocurrency must be preserved, such as cryptography and distributed ledger technology (DLT).
• The cross-border nature of cryptocurrencies requires one approach at the international level. National rules can simply be circumvented or difficult to maintain.

The minister further said that given the decentralized and cross-border nature of cryptocurrencies, a ban is not feasible, so it was more important to bring cryptocurrencies under the appropriate regulatory framework and the Dutch join with the French and German finance ministers to discuss cryptocurrency in the G20 context. The Netherlands wants to play a leading role in the European and international approach to cryptocurrency.

In further comments, Hoekstra stated, “I hope the usual process for the realization of legislation and regulations that these new rules can enter into force at the end of 2019. I foresee the changes to the [European Union] Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive will also contribute to the prevention of tax evasion.” This directive, which took effect in June 2017, lays out the most recent parameters and standards adopted by the EU to prevent money-laundering and terrorist funding.

He sees the change as helping to prevent the use of cryptocurrency for the purposes of tax evasion as well. While this letter is not policy, it does reflect the direction that The Netherlands, Europe and much of the world appear to be headed in.