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In light of the growing legal recognition and use of crypto assets, markets in the crypto assets regulation (mica) has become a hot topic of discussion around the world (see here and here for our in-depth briefing on MiCA and recent comments from the Central Bank of Ireland).

MiCA will enable the European Union to take a coordinated approach to regulating crypto assets across all 27 member states.

MiCA was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on June 9, 2023 and will enter into force on June 29, 2023. However, the main crypto-asset provisions relating to electronic money tokens and asset tokens will not apply until June 30, 2024. After that date, other provisions regulating providers will become Crypto asset services are applicable on December 30, 2024.

US perspective

We recently saw the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) taking enforcement action against two of the largest crypto-asset exchanges, Binance and Coinbase. The SEC has also declared that several well-known cryptocurrencies are notably unregistered securities no Name any of the two largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, bitcoin and ether.

There have also been proposals for US-specific crypto-asset legislation, such as the Cryptocurrency Regulation, Protection, and Control Act, and a proposed new bill in Congress that would introduce clearer delimitation between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on cryptocurrencies. Asset issues.

Singapore and Hong Kong

Other jurisdictions, such as Singapore and Hong Kong, have also made progress with legislation.

In Singapore, some cryptocurrencies are already regulated as digital payment tokens under the Payment Services Act 2019, which took effect in January 2020. The Monetary Authority of Singapore has issued advisory papers on the regulation of payment digital token service providers and certain types of stablecoin issuers.

On June 1, Hong Kong introduced a new regulatory regime for virtual assets, which allows individual investors to trade digital tokens on licensed exchanges. The new system resulted from a consultation process organized by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission earlier this year.

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