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A Thematic Report Prepared by the European Union Blockchain Observatory & Forum

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A Thematic Report Prepared by the European Union Blockchain Observatory & Forum A Thematic Report Prepared By The European Union Blockchain Observatory & Forum About this report This is the first thematic report prepared by the new team leading the EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum, aiming to present the latest updates and developments within the EU blockchain ecosystem. This is the first of a series of reports that will be published addressing selected topics in accordance with the European Commission priorities. The aim is to reflect on the latest trends and developments and discuss the future of blockchain in Europe and globally. Credits This report has been produced by the EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum team. Written by: George Giaglis, Lambis Dionysopoulos, Natasha Der Avedissian, Marianna Charalambous,University of Nicosia Nikos Kostopoulos, Ioannis Vlachos, Tonia Damvakeraki, INTRASOFT International Zalan Noszek, Hlib Krasnov, Kyrylo Chykhradze, Shota Oshkhneli, Dmitry Strukov, Bitfury Iordanis Papoutsoglou, Kostas Votis, CERTH. Special thanks to Scope for the editorial review and language proofing Note While we have done our best to incorporate the comments and suggestions of our contributors where appropriate and feasible, all mistakes and omissions are the sole responsibility of the authors of this paper. Disclaimer The information and views set out in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European Commission. The Commission does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this study. Neither the Commission nor any person acting on the Commission’s behalf may be held responsible for the use which may be made of the information contained therein. Page 1 Table of Contents Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 4 Country-level summary .................................................................................................................................. 4 State of the Union .......................................................................................................................................... 8 Country Profiles ............................................................................................................................................ 11 Austria .......................................................................................................................................................... 12 Belgium ......................................................................................................................................................... 12 Bulgaria ........................................................................................................................................................ 17 Croatia .......................................................................................................................................................... 23 Cyprus .......................................................................................................................................................... 30 Czech Republic ............................................................................................................................................. 38 Denmark ....................................................................................................................................................... 43 Estonia .......................................................................................................................................................... 48 Finland .......................................................................................................................................................... 54 France ........................................................................................................................................................... 59 Germany ....................................................................................................................................................... 64 Greece .......................................................................................................................................................... 69 Hungary ........................................................................................................................................................ 75 Ireland .......................................................................................................................................................... 83 Italy .............................................................................................................................................................. 89 Latvia ............................................................................................................................................................ 95 Lithuania ..................................................................................................................................................... 100 Luxembourg................................................................................................................................................ 106 Malta ........................................................................................................................................................... 112 Netherlands ................................................................................................................................................ 119 Page 2 Poland ............................................................................................................................................ 125 portugal .......................................................................................................................................... 130 Romania ..................................................................................................................................................... 137 Slovakia ...................................................................................................................................................... 143 Slovenia ...................................................................................................................................................... 147 Spain ........................................................................................................................................................... 153 Sweden ....................................................................................................................................................... 162 Switzerland ................................................................................................................................................. 168 UK ............................................................................................................................................................... 176 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................................. 183 EU-wide initiatives ...................................................................................................................................... 183 State of the Union: a country-level analysis of 29 countries...................................................................... 184 Regulatory maturity curve .......................................................................................................................... 185 Ecosystem maturity curve .......................................................................................................................... 189 Page 3 Executive Summary Europe is on the cusp of making major steps forward in harmonizing the legal, regulatory and policy frameworks of the European Union member states on crypto assets. On September 24, 2020, the European Commission published a proposal for a “Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on Markets in Crypto-Assets”, commonly referred to as the MiCA proposal. This proposal is part of the Digital Finance package, which is a holistic package of measures to further enable and support the potential of digital finance in terms of innovation and competition while mitigating the risks. In addition to the MiCA proposal, the Digital Finance package also includes a proposal for a pilot regime on distributed ledger technology (DLT) market infrastructures, a proposal for digital operational resilience and a proposal to clarify or amend certain related EU financial services rules. Europe’s strategy prioritizes ensuring that the EU financial services regulatory framework is innovation-friendly and does not pose obstacles to the application of new technologies. The MiCA proposal, together with the proposal on a DLT pilot regime, represents the first concrete action within this area. Given the rising interest in crypto-assets and their underlying technology (blockchain or Distributed Ledger Technology, DLT), the European Blockchain Observatory and Forum has undertaken a study on capturing the current state of technological, market and regulatory developments in each of the 27 EU member states, plus the United Kingdom and Switzerland. The study is topical as different countries present different states of development in blockchain and crypto-assets on several dimensions: Regulation and policy: several
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