Ethereum Watch

Lithuanian Finance Ministry Releases Guidelines for ICOs

The Lithuanian Finance Ministry has released comprehensive guidelines for ICOs in an effort to attract blockchain-based startups. According to Xinhua, Lithuania is now the first country in the E.U. to publish such guidelines for ICOs. The guidelines cover regulatory, corporate, indirect taxation, accounting and anti-money laundering aspects for ICO projects. For instance, in those guidelines, authorities claim that funds raised through ICOs are subject to corporate or personal income taxes, and value added tax. The guidelines also outline the conditions under which cryptocurrencies can be described as security, and consequently subject to regulations on financial markets instruments, securities, collective investment subjects.

De Nederlandsche Bank Declared Blockchain Is Not Ready to Meet Demands of Large Financial Market Infrastructures

The central bank of the Netherlands, De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), declared that blockchain technology is not ready to meet the demands of large financial market infrastructures. According to ETHNews, the DNB attempted unsuccessfully to develop four different distributed ledger prototypes over the past three years. After these attempts, the DNB concluded that DLT, while more secure than traditional technologies, is neither sufficiently scalable nor energy efficient.

Chile-Based Exchange Orionx Sues Six Chilean Banks for Abusing Market Power

Orionx, a cryptocurrency exchange based in Chile, has filed a lawsuit with the country’s Court for the Defense of Free Competition (TDLC) against six major Chilean banks. According to Bitcoin.com, the six banks being targeted in the lawsuit are Bancoestado, Banco de Chile, Banco Bice, Itaú Corpbanca, Santander, and Scotiabank. The exchange asserts that these six banks are abusing their market power by prohibiting exchanges from using banking services, thereby impeding free market competition in the country’s cryptocurrency industry.