On 7 May 2024, the European Banking Authority (EBA) published three sets of final draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) related to the authorisation as issuer of asset-referenced tokens (ARTs), to the information to assess the acquisition of qualifying holdings in issuers of ARTs, and to the procedure to approve white papers for ARTs issued by credit institutions under the Markets in Crypto-assets Regulation (MiCAR).
The draft RTS on authorisation establish the information requirements to be included when applying for authorisation to offer to the public or seek admission to trading of an ART, in order to allow the competent authority to comprehensively assess the application. Since credit institutions are only required to receive approval to publish a white paper, the RTS do not apply to credit institutions.
The draft RTS on the detailed content of the information to be included in the notification for the proposed acquisition of direct or indirect qualifying holdings provide the information requirements for the competent authority to conduct the prudential assessment in case of proposed acquisitions in issuers of ARTs which are not credit institutions.
The draft RTS on the procedure to approve white papers for ARTs issued by credit institutions lay down the timeframes that credit institutions, competent authorities and the European Central Bank (ECB) or other central banks must follow throughout the procedure for approval of a crypto-asset white paper.
The draft RTSs will be submitted to the European Commission for endorsement, to then be subject to scrutiny by the European Parliament and the Council before being published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
