Germany: BaFin Launches Market Survey on Cryptocurrency Derivatives

In an official announcement dated German financial regulator – the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) – stated that it had launched a market survey on cryptocurrency derivatives.

Wary of the Growing Crypto Industry

Cryptocurrencies and Europe have historically had a fascinating dynamic between them. While some European countries have emerged as global hotbeds for everything digital currencies, others have opted to take the opposite direction to curb all activities pertaining to blockchain technology’s most successful offering to date.

Now, Germany’s BaFin has announced that observing the steady increase in the number and trading volumes associated with cryptocurrencies, it has decided to launch a market survey. The regulator said in an official statement:

“The objective of the market survey is to obtain a detailed picture of the market for derivatives with crypto assets as an underlying and their potential risks. The market survey is aimed at all market participants, in particular investors, consumer protection associations, providers and issuers as well as interest groups.”

BaFin noted that along with the rise in the general interest in cryptocurrencies, there has also been a steady surge in demand for crypto-related financial products, including crypto derivatives. The regulator added that interested people can provide their answers and comments on the market survey by e-mail or by post by November 13, 2019.

Keeping a Close Eye on Digital Currencies

Germany is not much of an outlier in the crypto space in that akin to the vast number of countries in the world, it has typically shown a pro-blockchain. anti-crypto stance.

As reported by BTCManager on October 17, 2019, major automobiles conglomerate Ford had announced that it will be extending its distributed ledger technology-powered (DLT) energy-efficient pilot project to Cologne, Germany.

On the other end of the spectrum, BaFin has been considerably vigilante with regard to nefarious businesses in the largely unregulated digital currency circuit.

Earlier in May, BTCManager informed its audience how the German regulator had accused cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbene of operating illegally in the country. In response, Coinbene stated that it had no official presence in Germany which essentially sheds light at the wild west state of the global crypto-ecosystem.