Impact of Regulation 2023/1114 on the Maturity of the Crypto-assets Market in the European Union

Abstract

Starting from the saying "money makes the world go round", we asked ourselves to what extent this is applicable to digital financial assets known as crypto-assets (cryptocurrencies, tokens or stablecoins). The evolution of the last period makes us wonder how much regulation we need in the field of crypto-assets and whether the vision that determines the legal regulation of these assets in the European Union (pro-regulation) and/or in the US (anti-regulation) is so different, i.e. what will be the consequences for the economic growth of these two powers. However, we believe that the legislation in this field must keep pace with the continuous innovation that characterises the crypto-assets market, which has the ability to evolve rapidly, because even at this very moment when we are talking, reading, thinking, existing, many new crypto-assets and implicitly professional traders are emerging, who have the necessary auspices to obtain income that - most of the time - escape the rigours of the law due to the lack of legal provisions or insufficient regulation. The analysis of recent years establishes that insufficient regulation of this area has made it particularly attractive to speculators in this new market and, consequently, unreliable for bona fide investors (traditional or new entrants). Keywords: Cryptoassets market; European Regulation; Distributed ledger technology