Crypto regulations: EU securities watchdog issues cautionary note. Details here

Investors will not be protected under the European Union (EU) crypto asset market rules at least until the end of 2024, EU markets watchdog European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) in a statement stated.

Despite the fact that the set of nations was the first jurisdiction to give a go-ahead to a comprehensive set of rules to regulate crypto assets such as bitcoin, Ether and others, these will not apply fully until Dec next year.

In another news, the finance ministers from G20 nations on Oct 13 adopted a roadmap for regulating crypto assets proposed by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and the IMF at their meeting at Morocco.

As of now, crypto assets are unregulated under EU securities rules and the ESMA has made it clear that the investors would not benefit from any EU-level regulatory safeguards under the new rules — referred to as MiCA — until Dec 2024.

“Even with the implementation of MiCA, retail investors must be aware that there will be no such thing as a ‘safe’ crypto asset,” the EU watchdog said in a statement.

“Can you afford to lose all the money you are planning to invest?” it added.

Timeline for MiCA

ESMA in a statement clarified the timeline for MiCA encouraging market participants to start preparing for the transition.

As of now, ESMA is preparing the implementation of the markets in crypto assets regulation (MiCA) that will enhance safeguards for the crypto holders and other stakeholders who are currently not regulated by the current regulations

The statement is very categorical in highlighting that in addition to the risks inherent to crypto-assets, MiCA rules on the provision of crypto-asset services will not enter into application until Dec 2024.

While giving a note of caution to investors, ESMA also states that if investors are thinking about buying crypto-assets or related products and services, they should always ask themselves the following:

A. Can you afford to lose all the money you are planning to invest?

B. Are you ready to take on high risks to earn the advertised returns?

C. Do you understand the features of the crypto-asset or related products and services?

D. Are the firms/parties you are dealing with reputable?

E. Are the firms/parties you are dealing with blacklisted by the relevant national

authorities?

F. Are you able to effectively protect the devices you use to buy, store or transfer crypto assets, including your private keys?

Besides, there will be an additional transitional period during which entities may continue to operate without a MiCA license. This means the holders of crypto assets may not benefit from all the provisions of MiCA until as late as July 1, 2026.