• The final vote on the European Union’s (EU) Markets in Crypto Assets regulation (MiCA) has been delayed from November 2022 to April 2023 due to technical issues in translating the 400-page document into all 24 official languages of the EU.
• This marks the second delay in the final vote, which was previously postponed from November 2022 to February 2023.
• The European parliamentary committee passed the MiCA legislation in October 2022, nearly two years after it was first introduced in September 2020.

The European Union’s (EU) much-awaited set of crypto rules, known as the Markets in Crypto Assets regulation (MiCA), has been delayed again. The final vote on the legislation was expected to take place in November 2022, however it has now been postponed to April 2023 due to technical issues in the translation of the 400-page document into all 24 official languages of the EU.

This marks the second delay in the final vote, following an earlier delay from November 2022 to February 2023. The issue lies in the official 400-page document, which must comply with EU regulations and be published in all 24 official languages of the union. As a result, the financial regulators must wait longer before drafting the implementation rules for the legislation. Once the MiCA has received official approval, the financial regulators will have 12 to 18 months to create the technical standards.

The MiCA legislation was first introduced in September 2020 and was passed by the European parliamentary committee in October 2022. The legislation is seen as a necessary measure to prevent a financial contagion caused by crypto assets, such as the FTX collapse, which has been described by Stefan Berger, a member of the European Parliament’s economics committee, as one of the “Lehman Brothers moments” that “must be prevented.”

Despite the delays, the adoption of MiCA could be a huge step forward in the regulation of crypto assets in the European Union. The set of rules could help to increase the confidence of investors and bring clarity to the crypto industry. Once the legislation has been fully approved, it could pave the way for further innovation and development of crypto assets within the European Union.