Stakeholder group backs EU regulator’s proposals on digital asset definitions, solicitation rules [Video]

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) received largely positive feedback from its Securities and Markets Stakeholder Group (SMSG) on two consultations relating to the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Asset (MiCA) regulation, including a tightening of third-country services solicitation rules and more uniform definitions of digital assets and financial instruments.

ESMA is the EU’s top financial markets regulator and the body tasked with overseeing the implementation of the bloc’s landmark MiCA regulation for the digital asset space, passed last April.

On January 29, ESMA launched two consultations relating to MiCA: one on providers from third countries promoting digital assets in the EU, something on which ESMA does not look kindly; the other covering a ‘crypto-asset’ falling under the new MiCA regulations rather than the bloc’s MiFID II securities laws, which ESMA also oversees.

One of the bodies consulted was ESMA’s SMSG, which “facilitates stakeholder consultation by providing technical advice on ESMA policies under development.”

The SMSG comprises …