France’s current cryptocurrency regulations will be amended to match the pan-European rules set by the Markets in Crypto Assets Act (MiCA). The new regulations will become obligatory by January 1, 2024, for obtaining crypto licenses by DASPs.Â
Due to the “enhanced” registration, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), France’s primary financial authority, announced the provisions of its General Regulation and its policy regarding digital asset service providers (DASPs). On August 10, the press release was published.
The “enhanced” registration requirements for crypto platforms, as outlined in a new Article 721-1-2 of the AMF General Regulation, will include:
- Systems for managing conflicts of interest.
- Additional disclosure obligations.
- Segregation of client assets and platform assets.
- A prohibition against using client assets without their express prior consent.
The amendments will become mandatory on January 1, 2024, and applicants for enhanced DASP registration must consider them. However, DASPs that obtained registration before January 1, 2024, benefit from a “grandfather clause” and are subject to the framework’s previous, more straightforward iteration.
MiCA, the first comprehensive crypto framework, was authorized by the European Parliament in April 2023 and is expected to go into effect in three phases between 2024 and 2025.
The finalization of the legislation, which took years, sparked some concern among the crypto community. One is the daily transaction limit of 200 million euros ($219 million) for private stablecoins such as Tether.
