MiCA Deadline Approaches As EU States Prepare For New Crypto Regulation

• Crypto regulation among the European Union member states is taking a unified shape.
• By June, all 27 EU member states would implement MiCA.
• Jurisdictions would transpose the bloc-wide EU regulation into local law and assign oversight responsibilities to local regulators.

Crypto regulation among the European Union member states is taking a unified shape as the industry moves closer to the markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) implementation deadline. By June, all 27 EU member states would implement MiCA, albeit with unique variations to suit their peculiar jurisdictions. 

As expected, the MiCA specialized rules for stablecoin issuers will take effect in a few months, followed by licensing and other requirements for crypto firms. Users expect the latter to happen by December, according to the original schedule.

Representatives of the EU member states voted MiCA into law following three years of regulatory framework development. It is essential to note that the unified law would allow crypto firms, such as stablecoin issuers, crypto exchanges, and wallet providers, to operate in any of the 27 member states as long as they hold the MiCA license in any single nation. 

Based on the above condition, each jurisdiction would transpose the bloc-wide EU regulation into local law and assign oversight responsibilities to any of their local regulators. The regulators would afterward prepare to authorize the MiCA license holder to operate within their locality.

According to reports, many EU member states have begun preparations for MiCA implementation. At least ten countries are finalizing or have finalized local legislation. Several others are still some steps behind, but experts believe there is still time to achieve finalization before the deadline.

According to Sophie Lessar, partner at law firm DLA Piper, MiCA is an EU-wide regulation, which means it takes direct effect across the bloc on the agreed deadlines. Lessar believes the rules will come into effect, and there is nothing any regulator would do to hold that up. However, she highlighted that nations would have to implement technical requirements.