A crypto ban might not be the ideal solution for the Netherlands, according to the country’s finance minister who spoke after a local official urged the country to ban cryptos entirely. Dutch finance minister Wopke Hoekstra is convinced that supervision is more effective than outright banning the nascent sector.
The Netherlands needs to regulate the crypto market instead of banning the citizens from using the crypto totally since it has some benefits as well. The minister of finance was speaking as published in a June 11 report by local news agency NU.nl.
The official also acknowledged that various risks are associated with the cryptocurrency market. He said that he understands the worries and issues raised by the director Dutch Bureau for Economic Analysis, Pieter Hasekamp. But, he insisted that it is important to create proper rules for virtual asset service providers to minimize the risks surrounding issues related to money laundering and other criminal activities.
While noting that it is important to regulate the cryptocurrency market at the European level, Hoekstra said:
“My observation is now that supervision is more effective than a total ban in the Netherlands.”
Hoekstra also said that he had already issued a warning about cryptocurrency-related risks back in 2017. He insisted that crypto investors need to realize that all their bets on digital assets and cryptocurrency are “entirely at their own expense and risk.” Hoekstra had said in November 2017:
“That’s going very well now, but we’ve also seen big dips and peaks along the way.”
He was speaking just a few weeks before BTC reached $20,000 for the first time in December 2017.
Based on previous reports, Hasekamp said in a June 11 article that the Dutch authorities need to enforce a speedy total ban on trading, mining, and holding of Bitcoin. At the time, he cited the dominant anti-crypto arguments, alleging that cryptos like BTC cannot fulfill any of the three functions of money as a means of payment, a unit of account, or store of value.
Some of the biggest bitcoin critics in the world including the award-winning economist Nouriel Roubini have already conceded that Bitcoin may serve as a store of value, a major function of money alongside a medium of exchange and a unit of account.
