The European Union may ban bitcoin trading

European Union officials have discussed the possibility of introducing a ban on bitcoin trading due to its energy intensity and environmental damage.

Netzpolitik reported that while considering a proposal to ban cryptocurrency mining based on the Proof-of-Work (PoW) algorithm, EU officials also discussed a ban on bitcoin trading. A complete ban on BTC trading was proposed in order to limit overall energy consumption.

One of the officials cited the Ethereum network as an example, which began to switch to PoS, and suggested that the EU could legally demand the same from the Bitcoin network. In his opinion, there is no reason for the authorities to relax the requirements for CTS as long as there are more stable and less energy-consuming cryptocurrencies.

Another unnamed official agreed with him, saying that a complete ban on trading in any crypto assets that use PoW should be introduced. The energy consumption of the Bitcoin network continues to increase and attract the attention of environmental organizations, and with them, regulators. For example, Greenpeace and Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen recently advocated for Bitcoin’s transition to PoS.