Silvio Schembri does not own any cryptocurrency to avoid any conflict of interest when he promotes the digital currency, the Economy Minister has told Times of Malta.
Schembri has been a fierce advocate of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. During his tenure as digital economy parliamentary secretary, he was at the epicentre of Malta’s ‘blockchain island’ hype.
On Thursday Schembri said he still believes in cryptocurrency’s future despite not owing any cryptocurrency himself according to his cabinet financial declarations.
“I don’t have crypto assets because I don’t want to be in a situation where I’m told I had a conflict of interest when promoting the industry,” Schembri said.
Schembri said because of the government’s initiative to set up a regulatory cryptocurrency framework, companies that set up shop in Malta have an advantage over companies in other European companies that are yet to comply with “near identical” rules.
Last week the European Parliament approved comprehensive rules to regulate the “wild west” world of cryptocurrencies under the regulation known as Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA).
“The regulation must be implemented across all EU countries from this June. Experts will tell you that the EU regulations are an exact replica of the Virtual Financial Assets Act that the Maltese government implemented six years ago,” Schembri said.
Malta adopted the VFA Act in July 2018 and put the regulations in force in November. In the following yearlong transitory period companies could operate without a license.
Currently, 23 companies are authorised to operate within the VFA framework according to the Malta Financial Authority register.
Future of crypto
On Thursday Schembri told Times of Malta that cryptocurrency has had its “ups and downs” but seems to be stabilising.
One of the most recent cryptocurrency exchange failures came in November when the FTX platform and its sister trading house Alameda Research went bankrupt, dissolving a virtual trading business that at one point had a market value of $32 billion.
“Crypto is a relatively new activity that had its ups and downs just like any innovative activity, it seems that it is now stabilising”.
He said that Malta still has a way to go to achieve its targets, saying the pandemic hampered the country’s promotion efforts.
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