EU Council finalises MiCA bill text

EU Council members signed the MiCA regulation text regulating crypto assets without further discussion.

A separate law on transfers of funds for anti-money-laundering purposes requires custodial service providers to verify the identity of their clients.

MiCA includes rules that apply to issuers of unbacked crypto assets, issuers of stablecoins, and trading and custodial platforms.

Crypto-asset service providers (CASP) will be required to adhere to strict consumer-protection requirements. They can be held liable in cases of investor losses.

Trading platforms will be required to provide a white paper and face sanctions for misleading information.

For consumers, disclosures mentioning the risks of losses related to crypto assets will be required; for companies, rules on marketing communications.

CASPs will require authorization to operate in the EU. The largest crypto-asset service providers will be supervised by ESMA.

Industry lobbyists hoped to carve out provisions relating to a daily limit of €200 million on stablecoin transactions with collateral other than the euro. However, in September it emerged that representatives of Germany, Italy and the Netherlandsinsisted on ensuring that this did not happen.

The text of the document is expected to be formally approved by the European Parliament. It is expected to be published in the Official Journal of the EU early next year, before it takes effect in 2024.

Earlier in July, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament agreed on a provisional version of MiCA.

The draft law does not affect NFTs, though related provisions may be introduced later.

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