On
Thursday evening, the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee
negotiators struck a provisional political agreement with the Council on
new rules on crypto-assets (MiCA).
Key provisions agreed by negotiators for
those issuing and trading crypto-assets (including asset-reference
tokens and e-money tokens) cover transparency, disclosure, authorisation
and supervision of transactions. Consumers would be better informed
about risks, costs and charges. In addition, the new legal framework
will support market integrity and financial stability by regulating
public offers of crypto-assets. Finally, the agreed text includes
measures against market manipulation and preventing money laundering,
terrorist financing and other criminal activities.
Scope and anti-money laundering provisions
Negotiators decided that MiCA will cover
crypto-assets that are not regulated by the existing financial services
legislation. ESMA will be tasked with providing guidelines in this
respect.
To counter money-laundering risks the European Securities and Markets Authority
(ESMA) should set up a public register for non-compliant CASPs that
provide services in the European Union without authorization.
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) are unique and
unlike cryptocurrencies they are not traded or exchanged at
equivalency. All sorts of NFTs offered to the public at a fixed price,
such as cinema tickets, digital collectibles from clothing brands or
in-game items in computer games will be exempt from the scope of MiCA.
However, dependant of their development the rules envisage a
re-classification of NFTs either as a financial instrument or as a
crypto asset subject to MiCA.
Environmental safeguards
To reduce the high carbon footprint of
crypto-currencies, particularly of the mechanisms used to validate
transactions, significant CASPs will have to disclose their energy
consumption. ESMA should prepare regulatory technical standards on these
obligations to provide the market with clear guidance on how such
disclosures should be carried out. CASPs should make publicly available,
in a prominent place on their website, information on their
environmental and climate impact and forward this information to their
national competent authority, which will inform ESMA.
Quote
Stefan Berger
(EPP, DE), the lead MEP, said: "MiCA is a European success. We are the
first continent to have a crypto-asset regulation. In the Wild West of
the crypto-world, MiCA will be a global standard setter. MiCA will
ensure a harmonised market, provide legal certainty for crypto-asset
issuers, guarantee a level playing field for service providers and
ensure high standards for costumer protection. Tokenisation will be as
ground breaking for the financial world as the introduction of the joint
market was in the 17th century. With the MiCA regulation, reliable
authorisation and supervisory structures for new tokens are now being
created for the first time."
Next steps
The provisional political agreement
reached by the EP negotiating team will now have to be approved first by
the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, followed by a plenary
vote. The Council also has to approve the deal, before it can come into
force.