such as Bitcoin. The European Central Bank, in its second report [^11], presents both an overview of the actors, the different modes of operation and the different business models that originate from virtual currencies schemes. Measures of current usage for Bitcoin shows between 60,000 and 70,000 transactions daily, for a total transacted volume of between €15 and €30 million, numbers which are somewhat insignificant compared to activity with existing payment solutions[^12]. However, the ECB report highlights speed, cost and facilitation of cross-border payments as a major advantages of virtual currencies.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published a call for evidence on virtual currency investment products, as well as blockchain investment applications not involving virtual currencies[^13]. This interest of ESMA is much more narrow than that of other stakeholders, in that it does not seek to express a view of the desirability of using virtual currency in a payment system. Instead, it focuses on collective investment schemes (CIS) and virtual currency derivatives. In its preliminary work, ESMA has obtained data from 6 of 13 virtual currency CIS, which had approximately €246 million, with the largest accounting for almost half of this figure. Besides these schemes, ESMA also identified 