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Last week users of the online platform Reddit caused a stir when they coordinated themselves in a subreddit to buy shares of the struggling videogames retailer Gamestop. As a result, the price of the share increased massively and booked gains in the four-digit range. The objective of this campaign by the internet trolls was to […]

The crypto custody business is currently the youngest financial service regulated in the German Banking Act (KWG). As of January 1st, 2020, the custody, management and safeguarding of crypto assets or private keys that serve for storing, holding or transferring crypto assets for others is regulated as a financial service that is subject to authorization. […]

The probably most essential innovation of blockchain technology is the enabling of transactions of digital assets between two parties without the need to involve a central intermediary like a bank or any other payment service provider as a settlement institution. Cryptocurrencies exist purely virtual and can be digitally transferred between the payer and the payee. […]

The German Federal Government published its draft version of the legislation for the introduction of the Electronic Securities Act (eWPG) shortly before the turn of the year. There are several changes to the first draft version that was published in the summer of 2020, mainly consisting of systematical clarifications and the rewording of certain parts. […]

Companies that seek to procure capital have a multitude of options to finance their business in Germany. The first one to turn to is usually to talk to the company’s house bank, even though bank loans are regularly associated to granting of substantial collaterals by the borrower. Especially startups regularly tend to opt for the […]

When the European legislator decided to introduce the first piece of codified regulation for the crypto market with the fifth AML directive, he also decided to use the term virtual currencies to describe Bitcoin, Litecoin and comparable, blockchain-based units of value. The German legislator on the other hand did not implement the term virtual currency […]

Since around 2015, especially startups often choose to fund their business through a so-called Initial Coin Offering (ICO). These involve the creation of crypto tokens related to the issuers business model, which are subsequently offered to interested investors. Depending on the project, the ICO issuer may choose to connect the issued tokens to additional rights […]

Since the prices of Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin and other cryptocurrencies are approaching new all-time highs these days and more and more institutional investors are interested in including relevant positions of cryptocurrencies into their investment portfolios, also the daily trading volume of the crypto market is increasing accordingly. The 24-hour trading volume over the last couple […]

The German ministries of Justice and Finance this summer proposed new regulations regarding crypto securities in combination with the draft legislation for the introduction of electronic securities. According to the proposed draft, crypto securities are intended to constitute a specific form of electronic securities and differ from them only in the way that they are […]

BaFin substantiated its administrative practice with regards to the obligations arising from the German Securities Trading Act (WpHG), the EU Commission’s Delegated Regulation EU 2017/565 (DV) and other regulations that are applicable to financial service providers with the Minimum Requirements for Compliance (MaComp). The publication provides supervised entities with information about the minimum requirements that […]

The European parliament passed the final version of the long-discussed European Crowdfunding Service Provider Regulation (ECSP) on 7th of October 2020. The new regulation is supposed to go into effect in about one year. Just as any other European regulation it will be directly applicable to European citizens and businesses. A transposition into the national […]

Not all business activities that are related to crypto assets or blockchain are automatically subject to authorization pursuant to the German Banking Act (KWG). The obligation to apply for a BaFin authorization is reserved for business models that involve a banking or financial service and that are related to blockchain units which are either considered […]