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Germany has adopted the OECD's Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, obliging crypto service providers to report customer and transaction data for automatic exchange with foreign tax authorities from September 2027.
After a 15-month review, Germany's financial watchdog has turned down the MiCA licence application of futurum bank AG, the entity behind Bitcoin.de, leaving one of Germany's oldest crypto marketplaces without a clear path back to trading.
Data from SUBFROST shows the Alkanes metaprotocol, driven largely by the DIESEL token, generated over 61% of all Bitcoin transactions between late June and September, despite contributing little to network fees or economic value.
Bitcoin.de has been unable to trade for three months as its parent bank awaits a MiCA licence, and the exchange's operator Bitcoin Group has posted a sharp deterioration in first-half results.
A new concept called Shielded Bitcoin would encrypt amounts, senders and receivers using zero-knowledge proofs, addressing privacy concerns that matter to European holders navigating tax and compliance rules, without requiring any change to Bitcoin's protocol.
The European Central Bank says the planned digital euro will offer the highest degree of privacy that current technology allows, as concerns persist over payment surveillance.