De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) has revoked some of the strict regulations that were just recently applied to the crypto industry.
In November 2020, the regulator demanded of crypto platforms to get extra information from their users as part of the KYC rules. Crypto service providers had to verify owners of bitcoin addresses, which meant that people had to upload a screenshot of their wallet and also offer reasons for why they are making the crypto purchase.
Obviously, this didn’t sit well with the Dutch crypto industry, and 25 service providers wrote a letter to the bank in which they complained about these rules. Dutch exchange Bitonic even asked to be exempt from the wallet verification part by saying that it doesn’t have a proper legal basis and it violates the privacy of its clients; the company went to court with the case.
DNB changed its mind as a result and admitted that the verification requirement is against the law and that it shouldn’t have been used as a condition for registration. The central bank declared: “DNB declares the objection well-founded and revokes its primary decision of 17 November 2020.”
Bitonic responded by confirming that “we will remove the wallet verification measures as soon as possible,” adding “we are pleased that this relieves our customers of an unlawful and onerous procedure.”