What Challenges Are There for Stablecoin Rules Under MiCA?
Behind alarmist headlines and social media posts, there’s often something sensible being misinterpreted or misconstrued.
Today, we participated in a European Banking Authority (EBA) consultation on the technical implementation of new rules that will come into effect in Europe on June 30, 2024 under the EU’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulations for stablecoins specifically.
We regularly engage with regulators all over the world in constructive dialogue to help develop the Web3 industry. Those conversations usually aren’t public, in part, because things can be taken out of context or misconstrued, particularly as new regulations are in the midst of development.
Part of today’s discussion focused on a question we raised about whether there will be a grace period for stablecoin operators currently applying for the EMI licenses needed to offer stablecoins in compliance with MiCA. As it stands, MiCA would require all EU exchanges to delist stablecoins whose issuers do not have EMI licenses in the EU. Currently, none of them do. While we are confident that there will be a constructive solution in place before the mid-2024 deadline, if left as is, this could have an impact on the European crypto market and the competitiveness of European crypto exchanges in a global market.
As an exchange that believes in the value of regulation and the pragmatic benefits of MiCA, we believe it’s important that these constructive conversations take place to help ensure that MiCA achieves its goals and any unintended consequences are reduced. The broad intent of MiCA is overwhelmingly positive for the crypto industry. As always, there are critical technical details that must be worked through. We will continue to work constructively with regulators and engage on these important conversations in the interest of helping to grow the crypto markets around the world.