Netherlands: Exchange vs Central Bank

“US innovates, China copies, Europe regulates”. This cliché can be doubted as Chinese innovations are gaining speed, but, unfortunately, Europe is still handicapped by its overbearing legislative system. Of course, some countries do better than others, like the two crypto enclaves of (non-EU) Switzerland and Malta, but many others are disappointing.

The Netherlands, an otherwise business-friendly place, is famous for scaring out of the country its leading exchange Deribit in 2020 that left in anticipation of KYC (know your customer) rules tightening. Those who stayed were resolved to battle in court, and they did. This week Dutch exchange Bitonic had the Dutch Central Bank admit that their demands of ridiculously stringent KYC were unlawful and notably conflicted with the European user data protection laws. One small step for exchange…