The three main authorities involved in supervising the EU’s financial system have published draft guidelines on the implementation of new rules on regulating crypto-assets.

The Markets in Crypto-assets Regulation (MiCA) covers crypto-assets that are not regulated by existing financial-services legislation.

It is aimed at addressing concerns about a regulatory gap in EU legislation on the issue.

MiCA establishes systems for regulating the issuance, offering to the public, and admission to trading of electronic money tokens (EMTs), asset-referenced tokens (ARTs), and other crypto-assets.

Standardised test

The draft guidelines were published yesterday (18 July) by the European Banking Authority, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority, and the European Securities and Markets Authority.

The bodies say that they are aimed at helping supervisory agencies and participants in the financial markets to adopt a “convergent approach” to the classification of crypto-assets.

The guidelines provide a standardised test, as well as templates for explanations and legal opinions that provide descriptions of the regulatory classification of crypto-assets.

The authorities are inviting comments on the guidelines, which can be submitted by 12 October.