The EU Commission’s Proposal for a Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAr): Is the MiCAr sufficient to fully regulate the crypto-assets landscape?

Abstract

This thesis aimed to provide an overview to the regulatory future of crypto-assets in the Union by an analysis of the proposed Regulation on Markets in Crypto-assets in its published version of the 24th of September 2020. The present work has presented the different stages of the debate on how the regulatory future of crypto-assets in the European Union could present itself as the Commission’s proposal (MiCAr) was not a legislative act in force until June, the 30th, 2022. As explained so far, the MiCAr lays down a harmonized framework for crypto-assets that at the time were not falling within the scope of existing European financial services legislation. The proposal transposes the previously unregulated market of crypto-assets in a highly regulated market along the lines of the already existing European financial services legislation. MiCAr is being brought in to complement anti-money laundering rules and enhance financial stability and investor protection in Europe because, as the recent years showed, even markets in crypto-assets are not free from certain abusing practices. MiCAr forms part of the Digital Finance Strategy, which is one of the main financial maneuver included in the so-called Digital Finance Package (DFP), which aims to improve the competitiveness of EU’s financial sector by giving consumers access to innovative financial products, and at the same time by ensuring consumer protection and financial stability. In particular, this thesis analyzes the regulatory concerns and background of MiCAr itself by considering global stablecoins ad a threat to financial stability and monetary policy, contribution to own funds, money laundering and regulatory gaps. The entities regulated by MiCAr, and therefore analyzed in this thesis, are Crypto-Asset Service Providers (CASPs), Issuers and final Customers, in order to give a complete overview on the Crypto-asset regulatory landscape. In conclusion, MiCAr can be defined as a welcome approach to the regulation of crypto-assets, remarkable in the depth of its provisions and certainly has the potential to provide an adequate regulatory framework for the future of crypto-assets in the Union. Globally, it is – so far – a unique piece of legislation in this field of law. It provides a harmonized framework for innovative digital services in the Union that has the potential to further support users’ confidence in crypto-assets, even though it holds a few ambiguities that in this thesis will be brought to light.