It is already a reality. On 20 April, the European Parliament approved the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), which regulates the issuance and provision of services related to crypto-assets and stablecoins. An issue that has been the subject of debate at the 26th edition of the FundsPeople Legal Debate.
The key is to "differentiate between the use of DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) technologies for the representation of different financial instruments and investing directly in crypto-assets, which should be addressed with caution", recommends Josefina García Pedroviejo, partner and head of Financial Services at Pérez-Llorca.
Soraya Portela, an associate at Alter Legal, values the adoption of a regulation such as this one: "In the absence of a regulation, for some time now we have been advising clients with an appetite for developing these activities primarily on the basis of the interpretative criteria issued by the regulators", she confesses. In her opinion, the advent of MiCA "will provide more legal certainty".
Among the services that may be offered, in addition to management, is the custody of crypto-assets on behalf of third parties. "We have been cautiously exploring for a long time, in close contact with the regulator, the possibility of providing this type of service to institutional clients who demand it", admits Alfredo Oñoro, Director of Regulatory Compliance at Cecabank. Thus, the depositary is analysing the possibility of becoming a custodian of this type of instrument, "with the goal of adding this potential service to the other custodian services it offers, thus completing the value chain and offering institutional clients the possibility of entering this field in a more secure manner, by having their cryptographic keys safeguarded by a prestigious institution", he says. To do so, "we will have to register ourselves with the Bank of Spain as a crypto-asset service provider, which is also being analysed", Oñoro added.
Are the financial institutions prepared?
However, it also requires an effort on the part of the financial institutions, which will have to implement relevant technological developments. "It is unclear to what extent the sector is prepared for traditional financial institutions to advise on non-traditional assets, which until now attracted investor profiles that were difficult to access and, on the other hand, whether we are ready at a technological level", warns Álvaro Requeijo, head of financial regulation at Álvaro Requeijo Abogados.
The regulation came into force on 29 June 2023 and will not be implemented until 18 months later, that is, on 30 December 2024, but "I believe that, although the regulation will be implemented, it will take a little longer for the market to make use of all the opportunities it offers", warns Requeijo.
