{"id":4925,"date":"2022-11-08T07:20:05","date_gmt":"2022-11-08T06:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/droitbancaire.be\/?p=4925"},"modified":"2022-11-08T07:20:06","modified_gmt":"2022-11-08T06:20:06","slug":"mica-markets-in-crypto-assets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/droitbancaire.be\/en\/mica-markets-in-crypto-assets\/","title":{"rendered":"MiCA \u2013 Markets in Crypto-Assets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation<\/a>, part of the so-called digital finance package<\/a>, focuses on certain categories of crypto-assets which are currently out of scope of existing regulations \u2013 i.e. it does not apply to security tokens qualifying as financial instruments under\u00a0MiFID. MiCa regulation establishes a legal framework for crypto-asset services providers as well as consumer protection.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Context <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Crypto-assets are one of the major applications of blockchain technology in finance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the publication of the Commission\u2019s Fintech Action plan<\/a>, the Commission has been examining the opportunities and challenges raised by crypto-assets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following a surge in the market capitalisation of crypto-assets during 2017, the Commission mandated the EBA and ESMA to assess the applicability and suitability of the existing EU financial services regulatory framework to crypto-assets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The advice<\/a>, issued by ESMA in January 2019, argued that applying current EU legislation to crypto-assets is not always straightforward. At the same time, the EBA and ESMA underlined that \u2013 beyond EU legislation aimed at combating money laundering and terrorism financing \u2013 most crypto-assets fall outside the scope of EU financial services legislation<\/strong> and therefore are not subject to provisions on consumer and investor protection and market integrity<\/strong>, among others, although they give rise to some risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To respond to these issues and create an EU framework that both enables markets in crypto-assets as well as the tokenisation of traditional financial assets and wider use of DLT in financial services, the regulation will be accompanied by other legislative proposals: a clarification that the existing definition of \u2018financial instruments\u2019 <\/strong>– which defines the scope of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) – includes financial instruments based on distributed ledger technology (DLT), as well as a pilot regime on DLT market infrastructures for these instruments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About MiCa regulation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation has four essential objectives<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n