On the occasion of a conference organized on June 9 by the French Association of Securities Professionals (AFTI), on the subject of challenges of European regulations concerning blockchain and crypto-assetsthe General Directorate of the Treasury shared his ambitions for France. The idea is to “making Paris the capital of innovation” in cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance.
Paris: capital of innovation in crypto-assets?
According to Pierre Chabrol, Deputy Director of Corporate Financing and the Financial Market at the Directorate General of the Treasury, “MiCA is a unique opportunity to impose France in the global crypto-asset landscape and to strengthen the place of Paris”. The MiCA regulations, for Market in crypto-assetsis a European proposal under discussion.
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Its objective is to regulate the cryptocurrency market in European territories from 2024. This proposal focuses on 4 points: the creation of legal certainty thanks to a legal framework, support for innovation, consumer protection and the guarantee of financial stability. Its entry into force is currently estimated at end of 2023, beginning of 2024.
The Directorate General of the Treasury therefore took advantage of this high point to share its ambitions regarding the ecosystem of crypto-assets. For Pierre Chabrol, the French position consists in finding the subtle balance between the “affirmed support for innovation, risk management and the implementation of fair competition between players in the sector”.
He specifies that the fact that the French regulations inspired this European text “international pioneer”is a opportunity to increase the attractiveness of the Paris marketplace in financial services. He believes that the French capital can become a real hub of innovation and implies that France is legitimate to give the way forward in the field of crypto-assets.
The dynamism of French fintech
To achieve this, France can count on another regulation currently being adopted at European level. It’s about “pilot scheme for blockchain-enabled market infrastructures”. This second text aims to create a transitional regulatory framework intended for “testing the use of blockchain technologies in market infrastructures”.
We will soon be able to take advantage of it because it should come into force at the end of 2022. Pierre Chabrol completes his remarks by affirming that it is “interesting to have this possibility of initiating experiments, which can reach an industrial level of development, in a secure framework. This is a pretty crucial step.”.
It must be recognized that since Brexit, France has spared no effort to attract capital and financial companies. Our country has many assets. Indeed, the ecosystem of crypto-assets relies on the existence of a talent pool in mathematics and quantitative finance at the Paris-Saclay and La Sorbonne centres, as well as at the “diversification of market players”.
Finally, the dynamism of French entrepreneurship in fintech and cryptocurrency (like Sorare and Ledger) can allow Paris “to occupy an essential place in the field of crypto-assets”.