Blockchain & Crypto

EU Postpones MiCA Crypto Regulation Vote to April

EU lawmakers have re-scheduled their vote on landmark crypto regulation bill MiCA to April 2023. Its key provisions cover transparency, disclosure, authorisation and supervision of crypto transactions

MiCA vote EU

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

European Parliament postponed voting for its long-expected crypto regulation bill the Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA) to the plenary sitting scheduled on April 17, 2023.

MiCA sets guidelines for the landmark licensing regime for crypto companies operating within the EU. Covering crypto assets that are not currently regulated by the existing laws related to financial services, the bill also regulates stablecoin issuance.

MiCA’s key provisions cover transparency, disclosure, authorisation and supervision of crypto transactions. Additionally, the new legal framework will regulate public offers of crypto-assets. Finally, the revised text agreed upon in 2022 includes measures against market manipulation, money laundering, terrorist financing and other criminal activities.

First introduced in 2020, MiCA’s final version was pre-approved by the responsible committee in October 2022. The vote, originally scheduled for late 2022, was once postponed to this February but faced another delay.

Reportedly, the reasons are purely technical. Namely, officials previously said the translation of a 400-page draft in all 24 official languages of the EU bloc was taking longer than expected.

Once the bill gets its final approval, EU regulatory bodies will have 12 to 18 months to draft the technical standards for MiCA.

Meanwhile, European lawmakers are very positive about the impact it would bring to the “Wild West” of the crypto industry.

"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."
Stefan Berger (EPP, DE), the lead MEP

In the current unregulated environment, ECB argues that crypto is more akin to gambling than financial instruments.

Nina Bobro

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Nina is passionate about financial technologies and environmental issues, reporting on the industry news and the most exciting projects that build their offerings around the intersection of fintech and sustainability.