It’s been an action-packed week of crypto news, with lawmakers starting to close regulation discussions and promising deadlines. The European Union (EU) and the U.S. are both stirring up chatter. The former seems to be finally winding down on its crypto infrastructure bill. The latter is making a big promise to get its own regulations out by the end of the year.

For much of the first half of the year, investors have been impatiently waiting on regulation updates. The crypto market is still very much the “wild west,” with many countries not sure of exactly how to rein it in. Thus, we see many early regulations varying wildly from country to country. The U.S. and EU, meanwhile, have both been moving very slowly on their respective regulations. It seems that the two parties want to conduct vast amounts of research and weigh all possible options for their own infrastructure.

Things started to ramp up in the U.S. in March, especially as President Joe Biden signed an executive order calling for a slew of different crypto regulations. The order most notably sets up research groups tasked with studying different facets of the industry and how to pursue them.

Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) seem to be at the top of the government’s priority list. In addition to having its own provision in the executive order, Biden is also promising to deliver specifically on CBDC policy within the year. According to a White House official, the executive branch met on Thursday with a financial markets working group. At the meeting, the officials talked about recent CBDC and stablecoin activity, including the collapse of the algorithmic stablecoin market in May. According to the official, Americans can expect a final framework on CBDCs before the year is up.

Crypto News: EU Rounds Out MiCA Legislation

The U.S. is only just getting its hands dirty in the crypto space. Meanwhile, EU regulators are sprucing up the final draft of their own crypto legislature. The big crypto news across the pond regards the body’s long-debated Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) bill.

MiCA will serve as the skeleton of the EU’s entire crypto market. It is meant to address multiple aspects of the industry, like limits on energy consumption of crypto, registration standards for crypto companies and government-backed reserves for stablecoins. It will exist alongside several other amendments, like the anti-money laundering (AML) legislation passed yesterday.

This news has been a long time coming. EU lawmakers have been going back and forth over the details of the legislature for nearly two years now. Today, though, the final draft of the bill is ready and being agreed upon by members.

One of the most contentious bits of the bill among lawmakers is a provision banning crypto mining. This provision was introduced multiple times throughout the drafting process. It seems that members are moving on without the ban after last removing it from the draft in March.

After settling upon the bill’s terms in recent talks, EU members will now wait for the official announcement of the bill’s finalization in the EU Official Journal. Members will have one final opportunity to introduce amendments before it is enacted as law.