EU Crypto Investors May Not Enjoy MiCA’s Full Protections Until 2026, Says ESMA

The ESMA explained that though the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) legislation was passed earlier this year to create a licensing and disclosure framework for crypto companies operating in the EU, crypto asset service providers may not be fully bound by these regulations until July 1, 2026, due to transitional periods.

These transitional periods mean that national regulators will have limited oversight powers based on local laws. MiCA allows member states to grant crypto firms an additional 18-month grace period to comply, which means that full protections may not apply until mid-2026, depending on jurisdictions. As a result, investors will remain largely unprotected until the rules take full effect.

“Holders of crypto-assets and clients of crypto-asset service providers will not benefit during that period from any EU-level regulatory and supervisory safeguards,” the regulator stated.

ESMA called for caution from crypto investors as they could still be at risk of losing all their invested funds even after the implementation of MiCA in 2024. 

The European Parliament passed MiCA legislation in April 2023 after facing two consecutive delays. Its primary goal is to create a unified regulation of digital assets at the EU level, providing legal security for digital assets.

Ukraine is expected to be among the first countries to integrate MiCA provisions into national law. The National Security and Stock Market Commission of Ukraine issued a statement on April 4, 2023, indicating that MiCA would cover crypto assets not already regulated by existing financial service legislation.

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