On 8 October 2026 ESMA published an opinion, reference ESMA75-113276571-1742, telling national competent authorities (NCAs) that crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) should not provide crypto-asset services in relation to non-MiCA-compliant ARTs and EMTs: asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens for which the conditions of Title III or Title IV of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCA) are not met….
On 7 October 2026 the Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AMLA) published its response to the European Commission’s targeted consultation on the review of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 on markets in crypto-assets (MiCA). The AMLA MiCA review paper is dated 30 September 2026, the day the consultation closed, and reads MiCA…
On 3 September 2026 the Reserve Bank of Australia addressed two significant questions for payment and digital-asset firms. It published a joint RBA and Treasury paper, Retail Central Bank Digital Currency in the Australian Context: An Update, concluding that there is no clear public interest case for a retail CBDC in Australia. On the same…
On 16 July 2026 the Financial Action Task Force published its seventh targeted update on how countries are implementing the FATF standards for virtual assets and virtual asset service providers. The headline finding is that implementation remains uneven. Of the 109 jurisdictions answering the Travel Rule legislation question, 91, or 83 percent, reported legislation in…
On 18 May 2026, the Prudential Regulation Authority published a Dear CEO letter addressed to the chief executives of all banks and designated investment firms, signed by David Bailey, Charlotte Gerken and Rebecca Jackson. The PRA continues to expect a 100 per cent own-funds requirement under the market-risk framework for unbacked cryptoassets. Separately, where a…
Read the Norges Bank Financial Infrastructure Report 2026 as a status update and you will miss the part that lands on your desk. It reads reassuring on day one and demanding on day two: Norges Bank says the Norwegian payment system runs well, with stable operations and few disruptions, then spends most of its pages…
A crypto-asset firm that treats Norway as just another corner of the EU single market is making an expensive assumption. MiCAR in Norway did not switch on when the EU rules did. The provisions binding crypto-asset service providers across the Union applied from 30 December 2024, but a firm serving Norwegian clients was governed by…
Introduction MiCAR (Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation) creates the first comprehensive regulatory framework requiring crypto-asset service providers to implement authorization, prudential reporting, transaction monitoring, and incident notification systems. The Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2023/1114) represents the first unified rulebook for crypto-asset activities across the entire European Union. For reporting teams and compliance practitioners, MiCAR…
Introduction The Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) represents a fundamental shift in how crypto-asset transactions are reported across borders for tax purposes. Developed by the OECD and endorsed by the G20, CARF establishes a common standard for automatic exchange of information about crypto-asset transactions – similar in scope to the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) that transformed…