The dark side of licensing cryptocurrency exchanges as payment institutions

Abstract

The ultimate objective of cryptocurrencies is to become a payment system substituting, complementing, or competing with the conventional payment systems. Irrespective of whether such an objective could be accomplished, the functional similarities between certain cryptocurrencies and fiat money has persuaded competent authorities of certain EU Member States to grant payment institution licenses to cryptocurrency exchanges. At first blush, granting such an authorization would seem to be a step forward as it would bring otherwise unregulated cryptocurrency exchanges within the scope of the existing payment regulatory framework. However, this authorization effectively applies payment laws to new payment infrastructures that rely on volatile settlement assets with probabilistic finality. Since the volatility and finality risks cannot be fully addressed under the existing payment laws, an alternative policy option would be granting a special license to cryptocurrency businesses or introducing ring-fencing mechanisms to protect the conventional payment systems from the risks of cryptocurrency payments.