EU lawmakers have overwhelmingly voted in favour of the bloc’s first set of rules to regulate cryptoassets.

In a vote taken on Thursday, the European Parliament backed the precedent-setting measure with 517 votes in favour to 38 against.

The measures will be rolled out from mid-2024 and mark the world’s first comprehensive set of regulations for issuing and trading cryptoassets ranging from cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum to NFTs and other digital assets.

Under the new laws, companies that issue and trade cryptoassets will need to be licenced by a national regulator which will give them a ‘passport’ to operate across the entire bloc. The rules, which have already been given the backing of many EU states, also entail that major service providers in the space will have to disclose their energy consumption.

Stefan Berger, a member of the European Parliament for Germany who was largely responsible for pushing the legislation, said: "This regulation brings a competitive advantage for the EU. The European crypto-asset industry has regulatory clarity that does not exist in countries like the US.”

During a debate on the rules on Wednesday, EU financial services chief Mairead McGuinness, said: "I hope that our rules could become a model for other countries.”

Elsewhere, the European Parliament has backed new rules for tracing transfers of cryptoassets. They apply the international ‘travel rule’ used in traditional financial transactions, meaning that information on the source and recipient of the cryptoasset will have to be stored on both sides of the transfer to combat money laundering. It also covers transactions above €1,000 from crypto addresses of private users.

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