The regulation of global phenomena has moved increasingly to the centre of public interest since the Great Financial Crisis of 2007. This is a consequence of the globalisation of the economy, especially of the financial and capital markets. The provision of financial products and services is no longer confined to national borders, but predominantly takes place cross-border. This finding applies in particular to trading in crypto-assets, as the “[m]arkets in crypto-assets are global and thus inherently cross-border.” (Recital 8 sent. 1 MiCAR).

The EU has taken on this challenge to regulate a global phenomenon and is the first major economic area to put forward a comprehensive regulation in the form of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR). This paper analyses the cross-border issues associated with the regulation of a global market. In a first step, the territorial scope of MiCAR is analysed (II.). The chapter then turns to the European single market and analyses the regulation of cross-border activities within the EU (III.). Afterwards, the focus shifts to the trading of crypto-assets between actors within the EU and those in third countries (IV.). The chapter concludes with an attempt to answer the question of whether the European approach to regulating the global market for crypto-assets has succeeded in addressing its cross-border aspects (V.).

Read the entire article here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5190883 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5190883.