The European Union’s landmark new legislation, the Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA), has been delayed due to technical reasons.
The European Union’s landmark new legislation, the Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA), has been delayed due to technical reasons pushing the final vote till April.
"MiCA is tabled to be voted by the plenary in April and to my knowledge, the delay is technical, caused by translating issues," an official familiar with the matter said.
EU procedures require legal acts such as MiCA, which was negotiated in English, to be available in all the bloc's 24 official languages. This would likely mean further delays in the landmark licensing regime for crypto companies within the bloc.
In November 2022, the EU delayed the vote to February 2023 and CoinDesk reported then that technical issues in the lengthy text could delay the start of the licensing regime, expected to go into effect in 2024.
In the wake of the FTX collapse, EU officials said MiCA would have prevented such a collapse. But the legislation, CoinDesk reported, has a major loophole in which companies like FTX, based outside of the EU, would still be able to serve EU clients without extra regulation.
Read more: EU’s MiCA Law May Have an FTX-Shaped Loophole
European legislators have agreed upon the law in principle, which also includes reserve requirements for stablecoins, however the almost 400-page text needs to be formally signed off by both lawmakers and national governments that make up the EU's Governing Council. The law will directly apply to all 27 member nations, but much of the implementation and interpretation will depend on national regulators.
MiCA introduces the first-ever common licensing regime for crypto wallets and exchanges to operate across the EU to serve its population of around 450 million people and has been seen as a standard-setter that also influences rule-making across the world.
Source : [European Union Postpones MiCA Vote to April](www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/01/17/european-union-postpones-mica-vote-to-april/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=feedly&utm_campaign=headlines) by Amitoj Singh - CoinDesk by Amitoj Singh / January 17, 2023