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Europe: Where is the crypto lobby?
While the industry continues to grow, it is still struggling to make a real impact in Brussels.
Take the test. Go to Brussels and ask visiting Commission officials or European elected representatives if they see much of the crypto players. Their answer will often be the same: "Honestly, not too many."
Some like Circle - which is American - are present. But that's still a small minority...
The reasons for this lack of clout are well known: the industry is very young and many policymakers don't yet take crypto very seriously. "There's a big image deficit," explains Karel Lannoo, head of the European Credit Research Institut, a European think tank specialising in financial regulation.
Not sure the FTX-Binance episode will be very effective from that point of view 😅.
A financial problem?
Lobbying is also an expensive business. Several European trade unions such as the European Crypto Initiative (EUCI) are trying to make an impact, but their resources do not allow them to do much more than reports and analyses. "Simon Polrot, director of the EUCI, explains: "With our current resources, we can't do all the groundwork needed to convince politicians. By way of comparison, Meta spends several million euros each year on lobbying at European level. Mark Zuckerberg's group alone has more than 10 people in Brussels who have lunches and make contact with the circles of power 🚀.
So what's the solution? Some are arguing for companies in the sector to give more. "There's already money out there," brushes off the head of a major French group. But the initiatives are too fragmented, with structures in France, Italy, Germany...
"The unions need to get together", explains Dimitrios Psarrakis, who became a lobbyist in Brussels with the GBBC Digital Finance after working as an adviser to the Commission on MiCA. The only question is under what umbrella.
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