The French financial regulator has warned that cryptocurrency companies that fail to obtain an EU operating license by the end of June may be blacklisted and face judicial prosecution, highlighting the EU's overall tightening of supervision in the field of crypto assets.
According to the EU’s Cryptoasset Market Regulation (MiCA), cryptocurrency companies operating in the EU must obtain relevant licenses before June 30, otherwise they will not be able to continue to provide services to EU customers.
MiCA will be approved in 2023 to bring Europe's multi-trillion dollar encryption industry under stricter supervision through a unified regulatory framework.
At the same time, in the context of the relaxation of relevant regulations by the administration of former President and current President Donald Trump, the United States has shown a completely different regulatory path from Europe.
"It has become very, very urgent to complete the license application as quickly as possible," Marie-Anne Baba-Layani, president of the French Financial Market Authority (AMF), told the media on Thursday.
She reiterated that any encryption company that fails to obtain a license before the EU deadline but continues to solicit customers in the EU will be blacklisted and may face law enforcement actions, including prosecution, for operating without authorization.
According to MiCA regulations, encryption companies need to apply for a license from the regulatory agency of a single EU member state. Once approved, they can provide services throughout the 27-nation EU through the so-called "passport" mechanism.
However, some regulatory agencies have expressed concerns about the differences in the implementation of rules between countries, especially Malta's approach to the speed of encryption license approval, which triggered a review by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).
Baba-Layani said that if France does not agree with the license decisions of other member states, France is prepared to prevent the relevant licenses from being "passported" in the country.
She also emphasized that this was not a situation that French regulators wanted to see, because it would mean a "serious collective failure" and expose cracks in regulatory coordination within the EU.