Van Gerwen recommended limiting crypto derivatives to wholesale trade.
This month, a senior official in the Netherlands said that markets for crypto derivatives were marred by manipulation, opacity, and “other forms of criminal activity.”
“Cryptos and derived tools aren’t yet suitable as a means of payment and/or investment,” said Paul-Willem Van Gerwen, a top official at the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets, the main financial market regulator in the Netherlands.
“Don’t get caught up in the excitement of this trading, don't let yourself be tempted into retail trading.”
Recently, the Dutch regulator said investors were facing high risks in trading virtual currencies, and said its ability to regulate the crypto industry was limited. Therefore, it warned, any crypto losses were permanent and irreversible, only underlining the risks of the industry.
Due to these factors, Van Gerwen recommended limiting crypto derivatives to wholesale trade.
This is not the first time that the regulator has issued warnings — it’s been doing so since 2017. And in 2021, the Netherlands named Binance in a warning for failing to obtain registration with regulators before operating in the country.
Van Gerwen also discussed blockchain's use in clearing operations: “In principle, proprietary traders don’t get involved in clearing. And yet the technological developments could lead to a situation in which a peer-to-peer model arises, with proprietary traders possibly starting to engage in clearing themselves.”
Sabrina Toppa is a writer at TheStreet Crypto based in Asia. She has written for The Guardian, TIME Magazine, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and other publications. Follow her on Twitter @SabrinaToppa. For tips: sabrina.toppa@roundtable.io.
Learn how Wall Street pros are adding Bitcoin to their portfolios.
