Crypto assets and distributed ledger technology

Key points:

The EESC

• endorses the two European Commission legislative initiatives and considers that the action taken is urgently needed to regulate a technology which is becoming increasingly widespread, whose practical application is growing and which is constantly and rapidly changing.
• endorses the various regulatory adjustment measures envisaged which are needed to modernise financial services, without losing sight of consumer protection and prudential rules.
• supports a single regulatory framework which seek to: i) protect the end-users of digital finance; ii) safeguard financial stability; iii) protect the integrity of the EU's financial sector; iv) ensure a level playing field among the different operators in the economic and financial system.
• agrees with the objective of ensuring that issuers of "global stablecoins" are subject to stricter requirements in terms of capital, investor rights and supervision.
• would like to see measures to ensure that consumers and small-scale investors are provided with suitable information.
• has high hopes of the pilot regime for market infrastructures based on distributed ledger technology. (a test space in a controlled environment that allows for temporary derogations from the rules, enabling regulators and operators to gradually build up experience of using DLT.)
• has serious concerns regarding the transitional measures, which provide for permanent exemption from the new regulatory requirements for crypto-assets that were already on the market before the regulation came into force.