The Maltese Parliament approved three bills that establish a regulatory framework for the Blockchain sector and the country's cryptocurrencies, according to information from the Malta Today medium.
Parliament "voted unanimously" to approve these bills in its second reading. The bills include the Digital Innovation Authority Act of Malta, the Law of Innovative Technology Services and Plans and the Law of Virtual Financial Assets.
Silvio Schembri, Secretary of the Parliamentary Commission for Financial Services, Digital Economy and Innovation, shared an update on Twitter on the new development, which he believes will make Malta "the first world jurisdiction to provide legal security for this space".
"The 3 bills that will regulate DLT [distributed ledger technology] have been approved by Parliament and promulgated as law," says the tweet.
The projects are designed to make Malta a point of access for Blockchain and cryptocurrency companies. Schembri believes that they will attract new businesses and investors.
In celebrating the new milestone in a shared update on Twitter, Malta's Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said the new laws will make Malta a "global center of market leaders" in the Blockchain industry.
According to Muscat, the new legislation shows that Malta is the first country in the world with a "holistic legislative framework" to regulate the Blockchain space. The Blockchain companies now have the necessary legal tools to operate in a regulated and forward-looking economy, the prime minister added.
With the new laws on Blockchain, Malta - an island country of the European Union - has distinguished itself as one of the most friendly Blockchain jurisdictions in the world and has taken another step to become the Blockchain Island in the world.
The government of Malta has been working through different ways to apply Blockchain technology to public service. Earlier this year, it partnered with Omnitude to improve the transportation system using Blockchain. In the past, the government carried out a feasibility study using Blockchain technology to register academic certificates.
Many crypto and Blockchain businesses have already established a headquarters in Malta. The most notable include OKEx, Binance and BitPay. As reported by DiarioBitcoin, Binance was installed in March of this year. Also, in August of last year the first Bitcoin ATM was installed, under a somewhat fearful view of the authorities at that time.