Key points

• The European Commission published its new Digital Finance Strategy on 24 September 2020. One of the centrepieces of the Strategy is the draft Regulation on Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA), designed to provide a comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets in the EU.
• With MiCA the EU Commission has proposed bespoke regulation for utility tokens and stablecoins including payments tokens, asset-backed tokens and ‘significant’ stablecoins (including ‘global stablecoins’). As to investment and securities tokens, the EU Digital Finance Strategy relies on the existing body of EU financial and securities law, with the Prospectus Regulation, the MiFID framework as well as the UCITSD and AIFMD at its core, with the intention to incorporate necessary changes as part of the existing ongoing amendment and review processes.
• MiCA provides for a bespoke prospectus regime for crypto-assets, with the issuing of e-money tokens (ie payment tokens), asset-referenced tokens (also known as stablecoins) and crypto-asset services being regulated activities subject to licensing. While supervision of crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) will rest with national authorities, supervision of significant asset-referenced and e-money tokens will rest mainly with the European Banking Authority.
• The EU Digital Finance Strategy marks a very important step for the EU in promoting innovation and developing the Single Market. At the same time, while MiCA is an ambitious legislative project, there is room for improvement. First, the scope of MiCA remains uncertain as the draft MiCA does not clearly delineate between usage tokens subject to MiCA and investment tokens subject to EU securities law. Second, a systematic approach to EU law is absent. Thresholds and concepts known from other EU laws should be firmly embedded in MiCA. Third, a framework for supervisory cooperation with regard to truly global stablecoins is missing.

中文翻译：

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加密资产监管市场 (MiCA) 和欧盟数字金融战略

关键点

• 欧盟委员会于 2020 年 9 月 24 日发布了新的数字金融战略。该战略的核心之一是加密资产市场监管草案（MiCA），旨在为欧盟的数字资产提供全面的监管框架。
• 通过 MiCA，欧盟委员会提出了针对实用代币和稳定币的定制监管，包括支付代币、资产支持代币和“重要”稳定币（包括“全球稳定币”）。在投资和证券代币方面，欧盟数字金融战略依赖于现有的欧盟金融和证券法体系，以招股说明书条例、MiFID 框架以及 UCITSD 和 AIFMD 为核心，旨在纳入必要的变化作为现有正在进行的修订和审查过程的一部分。
• MiCA 为加密资产提供定制的招股说明书制度，电子货币代币（即支付代币）、资产参考代币（也称为稳定币）和加密资产服务的发行是受许可的受监管活动。虽然加密资产服务提供商 (CASP) 的监管将由国家当局负责，但对重要资产参考代币和电子货币代币的监管将主要由欧洲银行管理局负责。
• 欧盟数字金融战略标志着欧盟在促进创新和发展单一市场方面迈出了非常重要的一步。同时，虽然 MiCA 是一个雄心勃勃的立法项目，但仍有改进的余地。首先，MiCA 的范围仍然不确定，因为 MiCA 草案没有明确划分受 MiCA 约束的使用代币和受欧盟证券法约束的投资代币。其次，缺乏对欧盟法律的系统方法。其他欧盟法律中已知的阈值和概念应牢固地嵌入 MiCA。第三，缺乏真正的全球稳定币的监管合作框架。