EU delays Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation vote again

• The European Parliament passed the comprehensive Markets in Crypto-Assets, MiCA legislation in October 2022.
• The final vote on the bill was originally set for February 2023, but has now been pushed to April.
• The crypto sector is increasingly in the regulatory spotlight following high profile collapses of crypto companies like FTX.

The European Union wants to see proper crypto regulation across its member states, even as a global push for a harmonized approach gathers pace. 

Uniquely, the EU is in the process of finalizing its Markets in Crypto Assets regulation (MiCA), the comprehensive cryptocurrency regulations framework set to usher in a new dawn for crypto in the region.

But the final vote on the regulations will not come at least until April this year, the latest report on the topic suggest. 

EU postpones MiCA vote, again

This latest delay – the second for the highly anticipated MiCA rules following the vote’s push from November last year to February 2023 – is down to a snag in the translation of the regulations.

Notably, MiCA is a 400-page rule book that needs to be translated into 24 official languages across the EU bloc. The requirement that the document be available in all the official languages before going to a crucial final vote has necessitated the postponement to April 2023.

The MiCA bill was first introduced in the European Parliament in September 2020, with lawmakers passing the bill in October 2022.

Crypto remains in the spotlight as policymakers and regulators look to harmonize the oversight of the industry following a spate of major bankruptcies in the last year. Among these is the collapse of FTX and multiple other crypto companies tied to disgraced crypto exec Sam Bankman-Fried.