European Commission member Mairead McGuinness has urged member states to agree on the EU’s unified cryptocurrency regulation draft ‘Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA)’.
The commissioner for financial stability, financial services, and capital markets union, made those comments during a video conference at the European Central Bank’s (ECB) fourth Forum on Banking Supervision Wednesday.
She noted that while the member states are “making progress in their negotiations on the draft regulation”, they are required to “keep up the tempo so we can get agreement on these new rules this autumn”.
“Cryptoassets are evolving fast, enabling innovation [and] homegrown firms to enter the market, but [they are] also attracting retail investors,” McGuinness noted in her speech. She added:
“Our framework for markets and cryptoassets will introduce a bespoke regime for previously unregulated crypto assets including stablecoins, and I think this will provide clarity, it will help to boost innovation, and, at the same time, solid rules for issuers and service providers will prevent abuse, fraud and theft, protecting investors and safeguarding market stability.”
In addition, the senior official noted that the EU commission will soon finalize its decision on the proposed regulatory sandbox, a pilot program for market infrastructures based on distributed ledger technology.
An abbreviation of “Market in Crypto Assets”, MiCA is a comprehensive cryptocurrency regulation proposal announced by the EU in September 2020. The commission made some revisions in June 2021, in which NFTs were exempted from regulations.
In addition, the new draft required companies that provide cryptocurrency services within the EU to set up their bases in EU member states. The ECB also noted that strict regulations are needed to regulate Stablecoins, such as allowing ECB to assess its risks and have authorization rights.
