Blockchain and financial law: FinTech and crypto-assets

Abstract

The core issues that Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies raise, in the context of the regulation of finance, lie in the impact of decentralization. Being it a bank, a provider of markets infrastructures services, an investment fund, a trading venue, an entity that collects resources from the public etc., financial markets legislation always targets an entity that provides services or carries out certain activities. In the context of Blockchain, decentralization challenges this approach and shows its shortcomings, making it difficult to understand which rules, if any, should apply; how they should apply and how those rules should be enforced. In this chapter, some implications of crypto-assets will be discussed with particular regard to the current EU financial markets regulation.