Question 2024_7027
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Regulation (EU) No 2023/1114 (MiCAR)
Scope and definitions (MiCAR)
48
1
/
Not applicable
Not applicable
Other
Can a CASP receive / transmit / execute orders for non-EUR denominated EMTs, whose issuers are not authorised as a credit institution or as an electronic money institution?
Article 48 of MiCA states that: “A person shall not make an offer to the public or seek the admission to trading of an e-money token, within the Union, unless that person is the issuer of such e-money token and: (a) is authorised as a credit institution or as an electronic money institution...”.
The cited part of first paragraph of Art 48 of MiCA allows an interpretation in accordance with which a MiCA registered CASP can still either receive and transmit (to a non EU entity) or execute an order (on a non EU trading platform) to buy or sell a non-EUR denominated EMT whose issuer is not MiCA compliant. Namely, it seems that the provision of either of the two mentioned crypto asset services does not fall either under offer to the public nor under admission to trading.
It is quite clear that the provision of the two described crypto asset services does not fall under “seek the admission to trading.”
Nevertheless, an argument can be made that the provision of the two described crypto asset services does not fall under “offer to public” as well. Namely, MiCA defines offer to the public “a communication (...) in any form presenting (...) sufficient information on the terms of the offer. When a CASP receives and transmits an order or when a CASP executes it, a CASP usually only receives order instructions and does not provide any information on the asset that will be bought. Consequently, it can be argued, that when acting as described, a CASP does not offer an EMT to public. This interpretation is further supported by the Recital 28. This one states that “The mere admission to trading or the publication of bid and offer prices should not, in and of itself, be regarded as an offer to the public of crypto-assets.”.
Therefore, one could argue that a CASP can execute orders for non-EUR denominated EMTs, whose issuers are not authorised as a credit institution or as an electronic money institution.
Some crypto asset service providers are planning to continue to provide to their EU based clients a possibility to trade with non-EUR denominated EMTs whose issuers will not be licensed as a CI or as EMI. They intend to do that through the construction in accordance with which they will provide brokerage like MiCA services to their EU clients and execute orders received from those EU clients on non EU trading platforms.
If this is allowed and as EU based trading platforms will need to delist non-EUR denominated EMTs whose issuers will not be licensed as a CI or as EMI, the interpretation described in the question will distort level playing field and expose EU clients to non-EU regulated stable coins.
29/02/2024
Question under review
Answer prepared by the European Commission because it is a matter of interpretation of Union law.