The new German government has cited crypto in its coalition agreement, advocating for an equal playing field between traditional finance and “innovative business models.”
Three German political parties agreed to a coalition deal this week that will see left-leaning Social Democrats (SDP), the Green Party, and the right-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) take the reins from December this year.
According to a rough translation of the 177-page agreement published on Nov 24, the coalition calls for a new “dynamic in relation to the opportunities and risks from new financial innovations” such as crypto assets and blockchain businesses:
“We are making European financial market supervisory law fit for digitization and for complex group structures in order to ensure holistic and risk-adequate supervision of new business models.”
“We need joint European supervision for the crypto sector. We oblige crypto asset service providers to consistently identify the beneficial owners,” the agreement adds.
The document also states the EU supervisory authority should “not only take care of the traditional financial sector but also prevent the misuse of crypto values for money laundering and terrorist financing.”
The formation of the coalition reportedly took two months of negotiations following the German federal election on Sept. 26, and it marks the end of Angela Merkel’s 16-year reign as Chancellor who is retiring and will be replaced by the SDP’s Olaf Scholz.
