Postponed until April is the EU parliament’s vote , initially scheduled for February, on Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA), the regulation of crypto markets in Europe. The postponement was justified for “technical” reasons and was due to the fact that there were problems translating the 400-plus page dossier, which had to be reworked for each of the 24 official languages of the European bloc. Today’s is the second postponement, following the one in November 2022, of the plenary session of parliament dedicated to this measure. The motivation at the time was the same as today’s
MiCA aims to aregulate the cryptocurrency sector in its entirety, and sets out the rules for companies offering crypto services and the procedures to be followed for the proper issuance of stablecoins.
The future of crypto regulations in Europe
Postponed until a later date, then, is the end of the process of giving the cryptocurrency sector final rules at the European level. In fact, only upon final approval will bodies such as the European Securities and Markets Authority and the European Banking Authority be allowed to draft technical standards on MiCA, with a time limit of between 12 and 18 months. Approval of the Fund Transfers Regulation (FTT), which is expected to be implemented in tandem with the crypto regulation, has also been delayed and will require cryptocurrency transfers to include user information for both sides of a transaction.
In the meantime, individual European countries are acting on their own to equip themselves with stricter regulation of the sector, ahead of MICA, but especially following a particularly turbulent year for crypto markets. In Italy, regulation of “crypto-assets was approved in the last budget law, but other countries, such as France, have also moved to implement mandatory licenses for crypto companies in 2023.
