Scope of MiCA

Abstract

According to its “technology neutrality” principle, MiCA applies to all cryptoassets unless they qualify under other EU financial law, except for e-money tokens (EMTs) for which both MiCA and the E-money Directive (EMD) apply. Thus, Section 4.1 starts with the definition of ‘cryptoassets’, and Section 4.2 covers the exemptions from MiCA’s scope: exempted entities, the exemption for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), exemptions for assets covered by other EU financial law, and the exemption for fully decentralised services. Section 4.3 discusses MiCA’s geographical scope, and Section 4.4 provides an in-depth analysis of the difficult interface towards other EU financial law. Section 4.5 explains MiCA’s approach to addressing this difficult scope issue, and Section 4.6 concludes.