Crypto Assets

In the scope of MiCAR, a whitepaper must be prepared for a public offering of crypto assets or their admission to trading. MiCAR already includes detailed information on its content. Even more specific information on the specific structure is expected to be provided with the publication of ESMA’s implementing technical standards.

Crypto exchanges will be strictly regulated under the MiCAR regime in the future. What regulatory obligations will operators have to fulfill and which crypto assets may be listed?

While implementing the Travel Rule, the European Parliament also intends to severely restrict the usage of unhosted wallets in order to restrict anonymous crypto transactions in Europe. What are the implications of these plans for the self-custody of crypto assets?

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 […]

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 […]

and the verification of the first block of the Bitcoin blockchain. The disruptive innovation that enabled users to transfer units of value between each other without the necessity of a centralized settlement intermediary had the potential to circumvent the traditional financial payment system and therefore, at the time – shortly after the banking crisis of […]

According to BaFin, over fifty potential service providers already informed the supervisory authority about their intention to apply for an authorization to conduct crypto custody services until the end of November 2020. Less than ten actual applications have been submitted to BaFin until now. Even though it can be assumed that some of those that […]

The brokerage of the supply and demand of blockchain tokens in Germany in most cases requires that the acting intermediary obtains a prior authorization by BaFin. This has been the case even prior to the introduction of crypto assets as a new form of financial instrument at the beginning of 2020. The obligation to obtain […]

After the highly anticipated debate in the German Bundestag regarding the transposition of the provisions of the fifth European AML Directive only marginally included a discussion of the introduction of crypto custody services as a new financial service, it is still not foreseeable if the proposed draft, prior to the final vote will be revised […]

On 29th of July the German federal government resolved its draft proposal for the transposition of the provisions of the 5. European AML Directive into national law. It can be expected that this draft in its current form will be passed into law by the end of 2019. As of 1st of January 2020, crypto assets will be included […]

The German Ministry of Finance caused a stir to the German cypto community in May 2019 with its first draft for the transposition of the provisions of the 5. European AML Directive into national law. The ministries draft would not only implement the mandatory regulations from the directive to the German Anti Money Laundering Act […]

On 30th September 2019 Lutz Auffenberg, LL.M. will inform about the regulatory obligations of BaFin-regulated institutions and possible pitfalls regarding virtual currecnies and crypto assets in a daytime seminar of Forum Institut für Management GmbH in Jumeirah Hotel in Frankfurt on Main. Next to the current state of regulation on basis of the EU’s fourth […]