Analysis Crypto by Thebittimes.Com

In an effort to minimize risks of contagion, the European Banking Authority (EBA) and other EU regulators have announced an investigation into banks’ links to non-bank entities, such as hedge funds, crypto, and private capital firms. The EBA will probe how shadow banks, or non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs), can possibly affect lenders, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. These entities hold almost half of the world’s financial assets, or about $218 trillion. The EBA will work alongside the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to determine how disruptions by shadow banks could have knock-on effects on wider markets. The FSB oversees global financial stability. According to the EBA ’s chair José Manuel Campa, “We should be doing more and we are going to be doing more. We need to have an understanding of the whole underlying chain in NBFIs. Former EU senator working for Chinese spies said Binance is ‘the futu...

Bitcoin mining, which has received criticism for its excessive Energy usage, may be subject to a new Energy labeling system in the European Union. Bloomberg states the EU will work on a grading measure to promote environmentally-friendly crypto currency mining practices. Bitcoin uses “proof of work” to add to the blockchain, a process that requires a lot of Energy to run. PoW requires many separate computers to come to a consensus before new information can be added to the ledger. This draws a lot of Energy because computers must solve complex problems to earn the chance to edit the blockchain. The more the blockchain grows, the more powerful the computers needed to add to it must become. “Proof of stake,” however, requires much less power. With this system, there is no competition to write a new block. Block creators instead use their current crypto holdings and are selected by the algorithm to add new blocks. With this method, much less energy is dra...