Crypto Monitoring ‘More Effective’ Than Outright Ban, Dutch Finance Minister Says

GettyImages-1319205972
14 June 2021

Dutch Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra said monitoring of crypto would be “more effective” than an outright ban.

  • Hoekstra, the Netherlands' minister of finance since 2017 and leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal party, said there is no sense in a ban that would only apply in the Netherlands, NU.nl reported Sunday.
  • Monetary policy in the country is governed by the European Central Bank and therefore a unilateral ban in a single euro-zone state would have limited effect.
  • Monitoring and supervising cryptocurrency would be preferable: "My observation is now that that is more effective than a total ban in the Netherlands," Hoekstra said.
  • The minister was responding to calls made Friday by Pieter Hasekamp, head of the Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis, for a total ban.
  • "The eventual collapse of the crypto bubble is inevitable," Hasekamp said. "The longer we wait, the greater the negative consequences of the eventual crash."

Disclosure
The leader in news and information on cryptocurrency, digital assets and the future of money, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.