Financial Regulation International
MiCAR: an overview
Filling the gaps in financial regulation
Jose Zapata Sevilla
The advent of blockchain technology largely prompted the emergence of cryptoassets as a new digital asset representing value.
While some cryptoassets qualify as financial instruments under the European Union (EU) financial framework, others did not
fall under the scope of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID)
1 and have remained unregulated. This is particularly true of cryptoassets devised as an alternative means of payment or cryptocurrencies.
Furthermore, although blockchain technology supports disintermediation, frictions in dealing with cryptoassets favoured the
surge of new intermediaries easing transactions. These middlemen or cryptoasset service providers (CASPs) remained unregulated
as well.