European Parliament approved regulation on comprehensive regulation of crypto-asset markets (MiCA) on the territory of the EU.
Mica includes rules that apply to issuers of unsecured cryptoassets, stablecoins, trading and custodial platforms.
Crypto asset service providers will be required to comply with strict requirements aimed at protecting consumers, and trading platforms will be required to provide a white paper.
A total of 572 officials took part in the voting. 529 - supported, 29 - against, 14 - abstained.
This event brings the bill into force in 2024. Before that, the document must be finally adopted by the European Council in May 2023.
On the eve of the vote, a member of the Congress from Spain Ernest Urtasun stated that "the lack of regulation resulted in huge losses for many novice investors and provided a haven for fraudsters and international criminal organizations".
"MiCA is an important and necessary first step in bringing the crypto sector under regulatory oversight," he said.
Congressman from Germany Stefan Berger, one of the creators of the draft law, noted that the adoption of the document will put the EU "at the forefront of the digital asset economy and restore the trust that was undermined by the collapse of FTX."
According to the financial commissioner Mairead McGuinness, if Sam Bankman-Fried's company was under the jurisdiction of the European Union, then this situation could have been avoided.
“Europe missed the innovation train when it came to the Internet. Now it's not enough to just sit down with him, we have to become drivers of the new era," she said Lydia Pereira from Portugal.
Dissatisfied politicians were also found in the parliament. Deputy from the Netherlands Paul Tang compared the cryptocurrency to an episode in the history of his country, when in 1637 people were fascinated by tulips.
"Then the bubble burst, depositors, speculators and investors were left in ruins. The similarity with digital assets is obvious," the politician noted.
However, he acknowledged that tulips are now a part of Dutch culture and suggested that cryptocurrency could one day achieve the same success.
German congressman Gunnar Beck believes that with the adoption of MiCA, the authorities "will establish total financial supervision and criminalize the DeFi sector and its users."
As a reminder, Ukraine synchronizes its own regulation of cryptocurrencies with MiCA. The updated document "On Virtual Assets" taking into account European norms should be published soon.
