Starting in January 2020, the Dutch central bank will regulate cryptocurrency service providers and, it has declared, at that time they must register with the central bank if they want to keep operating. Those companies that must register include wallet providers and those offering exchange services (e.g., facilitating trading Euros for bitcoin). The providers must show their processes are designed to prevent AML and terrorist financing, and that the companies' policymakers adequately manage those processes.

The Swiss tax authority has issued a working paper describing new rules regarding crypto assets. The paper sets out tax treatment of crypto held by investors as private assets as well as the tax consequences of ICOs and ITOs for the issuers. For example, the authority has determined that "cryptocurrencies in the form of pure digital means of payment" are subject to wealth taxes, which shall be valued at the market value at the end of the tax period. In another example, if an issuer sells "participation tokens," the money the issuer raises is generally subject to income tax at the time of issuance. In a contrasting approach, the Portuguese Tax and Customs Authority recently published guidance confirming that cryptocurrency payments and the exchange of cryptocurrencies for fiat money are exempt from value added tax.

In the UK, London's High Court has taken steps to recognize bitcoin as legal property, though it stopped just short of doing so. The presiding judge issued an asset preservation order to stop the dissipation or transference of bitcoin stolen as part of a phishing attack. This decision marks the first time a court has considered whether cryptocurrencies are property, but it did not go so far as to determine whether cryptocurrency is a "chose in possession" (an actual thing) or a "chose in action" (something that can only be claimed by taking legal action, not by physical possession). If it is determined that cryptocurrency is legal property, that would allow those assets to be used like other property, such as allowing its owner to grant a security interest in it.

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