European cryptocurrency investment firm Greenfield Capital published a survey that named Lisbon, Berlin and Paris as part of the top crypto hubs in the world. In the survey, over 50% of respondents mentioned Portugal’s capital city Lisbon as well as two other cities as part of the most crypto-friendly locations.
There seems to be a major influx of crypto startups into Europe and Lisbon has been a major beneficiary of this advancement.
According to Greenfield’s co-founder and partner Jascha Samadi, most of these early crypto startups ask themselves certain questions before venturing into any jurisdiction. Oftentimes, they are “looking at the world in terms of: what are the risks in my venture?” Samadi explained.
Crypto Firms Recognizes the Importance of Regulation
At the beginning of this year, Greenfield Capital conducted a similar survey involving 68 crypto project founders that had a European presence.
The survey cut across several topics including the European crypto regulation Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) that was finally passed last month. More than half of the respondents agreed that regulation is a significant development to look out for this year.
MiCA is Not Perfect, But it’s Clear
Based on the response of these participants, MiCA offers more advantages than shortcomings. Even Greenfield’s co-founder acknowledged that “MiCA’s not perfect,” but offers “clarity and a clear framework.”
Also, “MiCA does tell you a little bit about the thinking of regulators, which is understanding and acknowledging what they don’t yet know well enough, which is DeFi.”
In November when FTX imploded, European regulators believed that the catastrophe would have been mitigated with legislation like MiCA and the regulation would have protected EU citizens.
Shutting Crypto Hub Plans in US
On the other hand, Eric Adams, the Mayor of New York had earlier announced his staunch stance of making the city a global crypto hub, a push that is now under threat as a result of recent high profile crypto collapses in the US.
Silvergate Capital winded down its operations and voluntarily liquidated its assets almost two months ago citing certain liquidity concerns.
At the same time, Silicon Valley Bank followed suit and collapsed leaving many crypto projects like BlockFi and USDC issuer Circle at a loss. Before the crash, BlockFi had $227 million uninsured deposit in the crypto-friendly bank while Circle had $3.3 billion of its stablecoin reserve in the bank.
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