FSMA Provides Schematic Analysis of Crypto Classification

© Reuters. FSMA Provides Schematic Analysis of Crypto Classification

• FSMA released the classification of digital assets, categorizing them into securities, investment instruments, or financial instruments.
• The Communication intends to provide a systematic analysis of the classification plan and its queries.
• The document explains the ways in which the assets can be classified as well as the rights exercised by these assets.

The Financial Services and Market Authority (FSMA) released the classification of crypto assets, with an exigence to provide explanations of the crypto coins “fall within the scope of the prospectus rules and/or the MiFID conduct of business rules”.

On November 25, 2022, FSMA published a document that holds the various categories into which crypto assets could be incorporated such as securities, investment instruments, or financial instruments.

Initially, FSMA stated the objective of the document, addressing it as “Communication”. As per the declaration of the Authority, people were curious to know systematically the classification of the crypto assets by the rules of Prospectus Regulation, Prospectus Law, MiFID Directive, or other norms.

Considerably, FSMA issued the Communication answering the queries of the public, by providing a systematic plan and thereby “presenting schematically the most frequently occurring situations”.

While explaining the “stepwise plan”, the platform claimed that only “exchangeable or fungible” assets could be called “instruments”:

If an asset is not incorporated into an instrument, then it cannot be classified as a security or an investment instrument, and the Prospectus Regulation and the Prospectus Law do not apply. In that case, the asset is not a financial instrument either, and the MiFID rules of conduct do not apply.

According to the document, the digital assets created by a computer code, like bitcoin and Ether, would not be subjected to the rules of regulation.

Furthermore, the platform highlighted the rights of the assets considered as instruments including the right to “a share in the profits or losses of a project”, a right “to the delivery of a service or a product by the issue”, a right “to payment of a sum of money”, etc.

By stating the consequences of the categorization and expanding the objective of the plan, the document stated that the stepwise plan is neutral and further clarification would be updated by the platform.

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