Cazenave emphasized that crypto currently represents only 1% of global financial assets and is not yet a major threat. However, she pointed to rapidly increasing connections, especially in the more crypto-friendly US.

Concerns include spot crypto ETFs, stablecoin usage, hacks, scams, and high-profile collapses like the $1.4B Bybit exploit and FTX’s 2022 downfall.

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To counter such risks, the EU has already rolled out the MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) regulation. While Cazenave called MiCA a breakthrough, she stressed that “there is no such thing as a safe crypto-asset,” and additional regulations may be needed.

Europe Still Hesitant on Crypto

According to Cazenave, over 95% of European banks remain uninvolved in crypto-related activities. However, retail interest is increasing, with an estimated 10% to 20% of investors in Europe having some crypto exposure—reflecting broader global trends.

These warnings come amid recent double-digit drops in both crypto and stock markets, as macroeconomic uncertainties persist.

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The post EU Regulator Warns Crypto Could Threaten Market Stability! appeared first on Coin Engineer.

The cryptocurrency exchange Binance has delisted several non-MiCA-compliant tokens, following the plan it announced in early March.

While spot trading pairs for tokens like USDT are now delisted, EEA users can still custody the affected tokens and trade them in perpetual contracts.

According to Binance’s previous announcement, spot trading pairs for non-MiCA-compliant tokens were to be delisted by March 31, in line with local requirements.

Other Exchanges Also Delisting Non-MiCA-Compliant Tokens

Binance is not the only crypto exchange delisting non-MiCA-compliant tokens in the EEA.

You Might Be Interested In: Elon Musk Talks About the Name of a New Memecoin!

Exchanges like Kraken have also removed spot trading pairs for USDT in the EEA after announcing their plans in February.

On March 24, Kraken moved USDT into sell-only mode in the EEA, preventing users from buying the affected token.

Additionally, Binance has delisted DAI, FDUSD, TUSD, USDP, AEUR, UST, USTC, and PAXG spot trading pairs due to MiCA restrictions.

ESMA and MiCA Compliance

Binance and Kraken’s decision to continue custody services for non-MiCA-compliant tokens aligns with previous MiCA compliance communications.

On March 5, an ESMA spokesperson stated that providing custody and transfer services for non-MiCA-compliant stablecoins does not violate MiCA regulations.

However, the same regulator had earlier advised crypto service providers to halt transactions involving these tokens after March 31, leading to confusion among market participants.

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The post Binance Stops Tether USDT Trading in Europe! appeared first on Coin Engineer.

Under current MiCA regulations, the ESMA recommended that miner-extractable value (MEV), an arbitrage technique based on re-ordering transactions inside a block to generate the maximum profit margin for validators and third-party builders, be considered a type of market abuse in part of its suggested guidelines.

“MiCA is clear when indicating that orders, transactions, and other aspects of the distributed ledger technology may suggest the existence of market abuse, e.g., the well-known Maximum Extractable Value (MEV),” the paper’s Section 19 states, “whereby a miner or validator can take advantage of its ability to arbitrarily reorder transactions to front-run a specific transaction(s) and thus make a profit.”

Senior director of EU strategy and policy at Circle Patrick Hansen criticized ESMA’s policy recommendations, pointing out that following the suggested rules would be difficult and unworkable.

“Almost all regulated crypto firms in the EU (exchanges, brokers, etc.),” the policy expert clarified, “would need to detect and report instances of MEV through sophisticated “suspect transaction or order reports.” The ESMA STOR template by itself comes in six pages.”

Hansen ended by urging all those engaged in MEV procedures to provide comments on the ESMA’s suggested regulatory revamp by the June 25 deadline.

MEV remains a challenge in distributed finance as industry titans and network builders provide original answers to the problem.

Vitalik Buterin, a co-founder of Ethereum, recently discussed a multifarious method to address Ethereum’s MEV issue, comprising MEV minimization, inclusion lists, MEV quarantine schemes, and lowing node hardware requirements.

Buterin clarified that although MEV was a problem that needed mitigating rather than a complete prohibition on the practice, given enough space to let protocols like Cowswap operate and therefore shield consumers from the hidden tax of MEV.

The post EU’s ESMA Proposes Regulating MEV as Market Abuse appeared first on Coin Engineer.

Mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and money market funds are all included in the category of UCITS, which are specific types of investment funds that are designed to simplify and protect investment transactions. Despite the fact that these funds are subject to EU laws, investors from outside the EU are able to take part in them. Unlike spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that are entirely focused on cryptocurrency, UCITS investments include a wide range of fund types, each of which has its own asset allocation based on risk profiles. In the event that it is authorized, it is highly improbable that there will be independent UCITS funds that allocate one hundred percent of their assets to cryptocurrency. As an alternative, numerous UCITS funds would most likely invest a certain percentage of their assets in cryptocurrency.

This decision by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) coincides with the recent licensing of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for spot Bitcoin in both the United States and Hong Kong. It would appear that regulatory bodies all over the world are gradually becoming more sympathetic to the idea of extending exposure to cryptocurrencies into more conventional investment avenues.

We have extended the deadline for feedback submissions to the stakeholders participating in UCITS until August 7th. The incorporation of crypto assets within UCITS would be a big milestone if it were to be accepted. This would possibly establish UCITS as one of the largest mainstream investment vehicles with exposure to cryptocurrencies.

The post Cryptocurrency Goes Mainstream? EU Explores UCITS Integration appeared first on Coin Engineer.

The latest publication from the EBA marks the culmination of collaborative efforts between the EBA and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to develop regulations under MiCA. This release is part of a series of batches of draft rules that the regulators intend to issue in the context of MiCA.

The RTS recently published by the EBA specifies the requirements, templates, and procedures for managing complaints received by issuers of asset reference tokens (ARTs) as defined by MiCA. Unlike traditional stablecoins, which are typically pegged to the value of a single currency like the euro or U.S. dollar, ARTs, such as Libra (now Diem) proposed by Meta, have the ability to reference multiple currencies or assets, including cryptocurrencies.

While MiCA as a whole is slated to come into effect in December, the rules specifically targeting stablecoins are expected to be enforced this summer. The publication of these draft standards follows a consultation period conducted by the regulators between July and October of last year.

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