Eastern Europe’s economic landscape is rapidly merging with the world of digital assets, and Romania is no exception. The cryptocurrency market is becoming vibrant and increasing, and the formulation of a strong legal framework becomes imperative in such a scenario to lend support for investors, exercise caution in fostering innovation, and hedging upon risks that an individual investor might have in the system. In this article, we analyze the legal context within which the cryptocurrency market in Romania operates. We assess the current state of the regulation in place, recent legislative developments, and possible implications in the nascent crypto ecosystem in this country.
Government initiatives and investment
The National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics of Romania will launch in April 2023, through its Research and Development activity, the “ICI Decentralized Services,” which will include services such as a Romanian NFT trading platform. This is one of the leading efforts made by the government in the domain of digital assets. It shall pave the way for various forms of value, like certificates of authenticity and property titles, to develop instantaneous global tradability, revolutionizing global economies, cutting down on red tape, and ensuring ownership of assets globally.
Scenario of Regulatory Compliance
There is no kind of limitation in Romania regarding the promotion of buying or using of services related to Bitcoin or any other Utility Crypto Asset. For an individual who exchanges his virtual money with the outside world like USD, EUR, GBP, or any other fiat money, the only intention that lies with the holder is to pay 10% income tax to the state, as per the profit earned. The gain is calculated for each transaction as the difference between the selling price and acquisition price, and transaction-related direct costs are tax deductible. Gains not exceeding RON 200 (approximately EUR 40) per transaction are not subject to income tax if the total gains not subject to tax in the fiscal year do not exceed RON 600 (approximately EUR 120).
Regulatory Authorities and Associations
Important governments and organizations with major investments in digital currency solutions would be the Romanian Government, National Bank of Romania, and the Financial Supervisory Authority. Major associations that are heavy investors and regulatory enforcers of the disclosed compliance with the laws, regulations, and standards governing the cryptocurrency market would encompass the Romanian Blockchain Association, Blockchain Community Romania, Romanian Cryptocurrency Association, the Romanian Association of Crypto Assets and Blockchains.
The important investments in Romania’s cryptocurrency market regard mergers and acquisitions, partnerships, financing product or service launches. Inclusive, Tradesilvania is a native digital asset investment platform based in Romania that has been opportune to receive a €500,000 fund in order to earmark investments to engaging businesses from the fintech and blockchain domains. The fund is channeled towards pre-seed and seed solutions and the assessment of impact emanating from innovative start-ups within the blockchain, Web3, and DeFi ecosystems.
In September 2021, the Romanian deep tech startup Human announced it had secured $9 million in funding, through the selling of cryptocurrency tokens in a private sale. That investment will amount to fuel the commitment they made in innovating paths for people to unleash their creativity without being bounded by the limitations related to time and space, budget and skills at the same time, by combining together the technologies of blockchain and artificial intelligence.
Key players
The major stakeholders in the Romanian cryptocurrency market include, but are not limited to Veelancing, FO DIGI CAP, Tradesilvania, WebDollar, BITSELL X, RUA, IdSquared, NFTicks, Coreto DRS, Pandora.
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