The Central Bank of Ireland cancels crypto funds, citing the inherent complexities of the fund for retail investors as the reason. The syndicate bank feels that crypto funds involve a huge risk factor for retail investors in the country who lack the knowledge and expertise of crypto trading. In its latest report, it describes crypto funds as a novel offering in the securities market and considers it as a “potential threat to investor protection.”
Last year, the bank answered many queries about Alternative Investment Funds (AIF) with regard to crypto. However, it is now expected that it will not approve AIFs for retail cryptocurrency investors. It feels that such alternative investments may be beneficial for professional or wholesale investors, but they are too complicated for Ireland’s retail investors. Patricia Dunne Director of securities and markets supervision of Ireland said that there are too many unanswered queries regarding crypto funds. There’s a lot to be determined around like money laundering, custody, and the overall liquidity and volatility of retail cryptocurrency investing.
The Undertakings Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) is a regulatory framework used in the European Union (EU) for managing and selling mutual fund investments across Europe. But regulatory views towards cryptocurrency around Ireland in the UK are not much favorable either. Recently, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is rolling out stricter guidelines for decentralized finance (DeFi) taxation. As per the new guidelines, returns earned on cryptocurrency via staking will be considered property. Consequently, such returns will be taxable as per the country’s tax laws.
