Peter Kerstens
(Source: TRM Labs)
About Peter Kerstens and #MiCA . Peter Kerstens is an adviser to the European Commission's financial services department. He advises on Technological Innovation, Digital Transformation and Cybersecurity. He is sometimes referred to as the 'father' of the MiCA law. The EU parliament has recently passed the MiCA into law, which is a comprehensive legal framework on the regulations of "crypto-assets" to be adopted by the EU member countries.
According to Kerstens, the EU regulators and legislators began recognizing the need for the regulation of crypto assets came about, due to the following two elements or "waves" of development in the crypto space:
The boom and bust of the ICO wave back in 2017 ~ 2018, and illicit practices like 'rug pulls'.
Another more significant wave is the fast emergence of stablecoins. A particular 'watershed moment', is the Libra initiative announced by Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook, which proposes to create a basket of fiat currencies backing the Libra coin. The 'stablecoin initiative' by Facebook at the time, was credited for the "political impetus" to push for the creation MiCA, as well the regulatory and legislative discussions in the halls of Washington that persists to this day.
According to Kerstens, the MiCA law can be broken down into three elements or parts:
The classification of the issuers of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, as well as, the CASPs (crypto assets service providers).
The rules and regulations governing said issuers and CASPs, ranging from the required licensing, disclosures and capitalization.
The "passportable" of the license granted is recognized and can be used in all the 27 member bloc of the EU.
When asked about how the MiCA law relates to money laundering and terrorist financing. Kerstens' answer that it is customary that when talking about crypto-assets to immediately involve money laundering in the discussion. Furthermore, he said that "it is not true" that crypto assets are mainly used for money laundering and illicit purposes, and that they are mainly used for payments and speculation purposes. A rare statement coming from a policymaker albeit from the EU, don't you agree?
