The European Union looks to lay down rules to regulate crypto-assets

The European Commission would assess the energy footprint of crypto assets.

The European Union on Thursday is looking to agree on ground-breaking rules for regulating crypto assets. This comes as the authorities feel the pressure to rein in the sector. Globally, the crypto assets are largely unregulated. National operators in the EU are only required to show controls for combating money laundering. The deal would put the EU ahead of the global regulatory pack by giving issuers of crypto assets and providers of related a “passport” to serve clients across the EU from a single base while complying with added capital and consumer protection rules. The new rules on passporting could attract firms from London. Crypto centers in the United States and Britain are yet to approve similar rules.

A source involved with the talks said three issues remained: non-fungible tokens (NFT), supervision, and energy consumption. The deal is likely to focus on including only token-like NFTs in the scope of MiCA, with authorization and supervision of crypto firms at the member state level. The European Commission would assess the energy footprint of crypto assets. Firms operating in an EU state would have 18 months after the start date to get a MiCA license without disruption to service. Crypto assets came under pressure after the fall of TerraUSD and Luna tokens last month.