A week rarely goes by without media stories about crypto-assets - on everything from specific applications in the existing financial infrastructure to fantastic(al) moonshot projects, wild market gyrations and unfortunate stories of collapse and manipulation.

Despite the prominent place of crypto-assets in the public's imagination, the asset-class and market participants have until now been largely unregulated in most of the EU. This state of affairs will be completely upended following the political agreement on MiCA a few months ago.
 
MiCA will fundamentally affect every aspect of the crypto industry from design over issuance and services to trading and will erect new regulatory barriers to both market participants, products and business models. It will also introduce a previously unknown harsh sanctions regime for breach of the regulation.

At the same time, MiCA also promises to dispense with the current patchwork of national crypto regulation throughout the European Union and enable compliant issuers and licensed service providers an EU-wide passporting regime akin to what applies to traditional financial services.
 
Staying abreast of MiCA will therefore be a "must" for all participants in this market and at the seminar on 8 February 2023, Plesner will explore the key issues facing the market as participants adjust to the coming new regulatory landscape.