European Securities and Markets Authority

The European Securities and Markets Authority has released the final guidelines for the implementation of the MiCA cryptocurrency regulation

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) released its final guidance on Tuesday to assist member states in implementing the upcoming regulations. ESMA published the final report on reverse solicitation, systems, the potential classification of cryptocurrencies as financial instruments, and technical standards for preventing market abuse.The EU's dedicated regulation for the cryptocurrency industry, the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, is set to come into effect on December 30 across 27 member states. However, some countries have yet to develop legislation to implement MiCA. The Bank of Portugal stated on Monday that, as the legislation has not yet been passed, it is currently unclear which national authority will be responsible for these rules. Industry associations noted that part of the delay in national authorities is due to the short time gap between ESMA's release of the final technical standards in October and the implementation date.ESMA Chair Verena Ross stated, "Looking ahead, as the transition period progresses, we will continue to provide guidance and work with all national competent authorities (NCAs) to ensure the smooth implementation of MiCA and support a level playing field through regulatory convergence actions."

The European Securities and Markets Authority has released the first batch of consultation proposals under the EU Crypto-Assets Market Law

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU financial markets regulator, has published its first consultation paper under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) and invited stakeholders to provide feedback by September 20, 2023. ESMA is seeking opinions on the proposed rules for crypto-asset service providers (CASPs), particularly regarding their authorization, the identification and management of conflicts of interest, and how CASPs should handle complaints. The consultation document states that MiCA will serve as the cornerstone of EU regulation for crypto assets. Among other things, it sets out the authorization and supervision of crypto-asset service providers (CASPs), requirements for providing crypto-asset services and activities, authorization and supervision of trading platforms, and requirements for crypto-asset trading activities across the EU. The implementation of MiCA will require market participants to undertake extensive preparatory activities to comply with the new rules.Additionally, ESMA aims to gather more information about respondents' current and planned activities as part of a fact-finding exercise to better understand the EU crypto-asset market and its future developments. These questions relate to factors such as respondents' expected turnover, the number of white papers they plan to publish, and the use of on-chain versus off-chain transactions. Feedback from this part of the consultation will be kept confidential and will be used to refine certain proposals included in the second and third consultation packages. ESMA will consider the feedback received from this consultation and expects to publish a final report and submit a draft of the technical standards for approval by the European Commission by June 30, 2024, at the latest.
2023-07-12
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