Blog

The Electronic Securities Act (eWPG) came into effect on the 10th of June 2021 in Germany. Since then, businesses have the opportunity to issue bonds in the form of electronic securities. A special form of electronic securities are crypto securities, which are electronic securities that are registered in a crypto security registry. However, the eWPG […]

Holders of crypto assets that are suitable for the so-called delegated staking may delegate their crypto assets to a staking provider in order to participate in the underlying consensus mechanism for the validation of transactions in the network. The rewards for the abovementioned participation are newly issued blockchain units, which are generated and issued by […]

Most probably the German legislator did not expect the following when introducing crypto assets as financial instruments: On the 9th of June 2021, the small Latin American country of El Salvador passed a new legislation that will declare Bitcoin its unrestricted, domestic legal tender. As of the new legislation will come into effect, payments made […]

On the 26th of June 2021, the new supervisory regime for investment firms – the Investment Firms Act (WpIG) – will go into effect in Germany. The new regulation will be relevant for all businesses which offer financial services such as investment brokerage, investment advisory services, proprietary trading or financial portfolio management and comparable services. […]

Next to the credit business, the deposit business is probably the most prominent banking business. According to the legal definition, deposit business is conducted, if unconditionally repayable funds are accepted by a third-party. However, the definition of deposit business intends for an important exemption for cases in which the repayment claim is securitized in bearer […]

Currently, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) are in the state of a real hype. Unlike other blockchain tokens NFTs are not fungible in the sense that they are not interchangeable with other, identically designed tokens of the same kind. They are rather individual tokens which each represent a specific right or object. In this context, the idea […]

By the end of April, BaFin announced via their website that they have reasons for suspecting that a well-known crypto exchange publicly offers securities in the form of so-called stock tokens in Germany without required security prospectuses. Stock tokens are one of the newest innovations in the crypto industry. The way that a stock token […]

 The German Bundestag passed the new Investment Firms Act (WpIG) on the 15th of April 2021. The new legislation is scheduled to go into effect on the 26th of July 2021 and is intended to implement the statutory requirements of the European Investment Firms Directive (IFD). The new law will exclude small and medium-sized investment […]

Prior to start of operations in Germany most blockchain-based business models require BaFin authorization, because of the legal qualification of most cryptocurrencies as financial instruments in the sense of the German Banking Act (KWG). The German legislator explicitly confirmed his administrative practice of BaFin being in place already since 2011 by explicitly regulating crypto assets […]

Over the last years, so-called token sales have emerged as a new method of financing for businesses. By such, companies that seek funding offer interested investors their self-created blockchain tokens for purchase. These tokens allow their bearers the assertion of certain connected rights vis-à-vis the issuer. The rights that can be associated with the tokens […]

The public offering of security tokens on the crypto markets for financing purposes has become a viable alternative for innovative businesses since 2017. The options for funds-seeking companies range from the issuance of so-called utility tokens, which resemble a digital voucher usable exclusively within the business model of the token issuer to so-called security tokens, […]