Blog

Despite fierce criticism from the industry, the Crypto Asset Transfer Regulation of the Federal Ministry of Finances has gone into effect on October 1st, 2021. One of the exemptions in it has the potential to completely unhinge the entire regulation.

NFTs are based on blockchain technology, just like traditional cryptocurrencies. But does this necessarily result in NFTs qualifying as financial instruments in the sense of German regulatory law?

Initial DEX Offerings are a relatively new type of token sale. What does the term mean and is it possible that tokens may be publicly offered via IDOs without triggering regulatory obligations for the involved parties and without a documentation of the offer by the issuer?

Security token offerings generally require an officially approved security prospectus. But the entire prospectus is not required in each and every case.

The financial industry in the European Union profits from passporting-options, enabling service providers to offer their services cross-border and with a uniform supervision in their home-state. But is this also applicable for crypto service providers?

Crypto custody providers as well as operators of crypto security registries enjoy generous exemptions, especially with regards to the regulatory capital requirements. But are these exemptions still applicable, if a crypto custody service provider additionally acts as a crypto securities registry operator?

The participation in economic life is steadily being digitalized and that even prior to the outbreak of the current pandemic. An increasing number of everyday contracts is entered into via the internet. Consumers that enter into contracts with entrepreneurs via the internet are generally entitled to a legal right of revocation versus the entrepreneur under […]

The Electronic Securities Act (eWPG) went into effect in June of 2021. According to the unambiguous intention of the legislator, the eWPG relates solely to unsecuritised bearer bonds and it is in its current iteration intended as somewhat of a test for the possible introduction of other unsecuritised financial instruments such as e.g. electronic stocks. […]

In almost no other field the EU Commission is as active as in the field of regulation of the combat against money-laundering and terrorism financing. The fourth Anti-Money-Laundering Directive had only been released in 2015 and had to be transposed by the member states until the 26th of June 2017. Even prior to the expiration of […]

The rising interest in cryptocurrencies, especially of professional investors and the steadily growing acceptance of tokenized investment products on the capital markets prompted the German legislator to introduce crypto securities as a new sub-type of securities. These are a special form of electronic bearer bonds which do not require securitization in a paper document. With […]

In 2018, the first first piece of codified regulation regarding blockchain and DLT units was introduced in the European Union with the creation of the so-called fifth Anti-Money-Laundering Directive. Since then, virtual currencies are defined by the European AML regulation as a digital representation of value that is not issued or guaranteed by a central […]

There are not only electronic securities but also crypto securities since the Act on Electronic Securities (eWpG) went into effect on the 10th of June 2021. According to the legal definition, the term also includes unsecured electronic bearer bonds which are registered in a crypto security register. The legislator simultaneously turned the operation of such […]