Adan is about to close its doors for two short weeks, time for the team to recharge its batteries after a month of July that reflected the first half of 2021: intense.

We are proud of the success of the first edition of our Crypto Finance Forum. With around thirty specialists, this day allowed a broad overview of crypto-assets, their uses, trends, and above all, the opportunities they offer for the digital transformation of finance. An audience of more than 180 participants listened to these experts share their knowledge and enlightened vision of decentralised finance, regulation, markets and the bank of tomorrow, and the challenges facing France and the EU in terms of competitiveness and sovereignty. The proof that the demand for a better understanding of these innovations is strong, that the democratisation of crypto-assets is underway, and that we must maintain our efforts in terms of education. If you missed this great event, don’t panic; find the written report, the presentation materials and the video replay on our website (see our Publications below).

In addition to the organisation of our Forum, Adan’s day-to-day missions and work did not stop. The regulatory and institutional news has not yet taken its summer quarters. Thus, while the European Central Bank is taking a closer look at the possibility of issuing its digital euro, the Association is publishing its vision and recommendations on the subject: the fears expressed in our paper about the threats to our competitiveness and sovereignty are becoming increasingly accurate, as evidenced by the arrival of Tether EURT. The European Commission is proposing to strengthen anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing requirements for crypto players, with the French industry (including Adan) being heard by the FATF at the same time. Regarding MiCA, the debates within the European institutions are dragging on and even getting bogged down. Globally, the pressure from regulators on crypto-asset companies is constantly mounting; talk to Binance, DeFi entrepreneurs and PSAN candidates still waiting for their registration. So how far can we go in terms of regulation? I’ll see you in Biarritz on August 26 to answer this question, a topic I’ll be speaking on at the new edition of Surfin’Bitcoin.

Finally, we would like to welcome the 4 new members of Adan, who bring the number of our members to 72: Lugh, Mithras Labs Paladin, PayInnov and Sesterce. Thanks to you all!

May the summer break be beautiful in the perspective of an exciting new year. If you are short of reading material, do not hesitate to take the first activity report of the Association (see our Publications below)!

Faustine

Publications

First edition of the Crypto Finance Forum

On 19 July 2021, Adan organised the first edition of the Crypto Finance Forum at the Maison de la Mutualité in Paris. Throughout the day, this unique event provided an opportunity to decipher and build a debate around digital assets between institutional players (authorities, decision-makers and players in traditional banking and finance) on the one hand, and the digital assets industry on the other.  On 19 July 2021, Adan organised the first edition of the Crypto Finance Forum at the Maison de la Mutualité in Paris. Throughout the day, this unique event provided an opportunity to decipher and build a debate around digital assets between institutional players (authorities, decision-makers and players in traditional banking and finance) on the one hand, and the digital assets industry on the other.

This article summarises all the speeches made during this Forum, organised in partnership with Ledger, Paraswap, Coinhouse, iExec, Kaiko, KPMG and Scorechain. The exchanges held during the day were covered by Bsmart, Cryptoast and L’Express.

 

➡️ watch the replay

One year after its creation, the Digital Asset Development Association publishes its first-ever annual activity report

The year 2020, which saw the birth of Adan, has been intense in work and rich in achievements.

The Association is proud to publish its very first activity report in which you will find: a general overview of the crypto-asset markets and the significant developments of 2020; the subjects dealt with and the actions carried out by Adan throughout its first year of existence; as well as the presentation of our missions, our organisation, our functioning, our team.

Thus, if 2020 has been synonymous with growth for the entire digital assets industry, it has also allowed us to establish ourselves as a reference player to federate and represent the sector professionals in France.

➡️ Read the annual activity report

AML/CFT in the face of crypto-asset activities: what risks for what regulation?

The innovation of crypto-assets, taken in the context of money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/FT), has been the subject of intense controversy for over a decade now. While some argue that crypto-assets do not raise any more risk than legal tender, others consider that they are used mainly to commit money laundering and terrorist financing crimes.

Adan offers a factual and granular analysis of the BC-FT risks carried by crypto-asset markets in its new educational article.

This new article is part of burning regulatory news. At the same time, the European Commission revealed on July 20th its ambitious project of reforming the European rules on anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML-CFT).

➡️ Read the article

Digital Euro: Adan warns on the need for a digital euro for innovation, competitiveness and European sovereignty

The issue of the digital euro, whether dealing with stablecoins or central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), has been taken up by Adan since its creation. After highlighting its importance in the Adan-AFTI-AMAFI-Gide255 survey on security tokens, participating in the consultations of the Financial Stability Board (on global stablecoins) and the European Central Bank (on the digital euro), and contributing to the current reflections on the framework of stablecoins by the future European MiCA regulation, the Association unveils its summary position on the digital euro.

The transition to the future European digital economy is based on the issue and availability of a digital euro. In the face of the lead taken by the United States and Asia, the digital euro is a crucial issue for Europe’s competitiveness and the monetary sovereignty of the euro zone. We, therefore, present our vision and make recommendations so that the coexistence of the ECB’s digital currency and innovative private initiatives (euro stablecoins) can bring about the digital transformation of European finance and reaffirm the monetary sovereignty of the euro area.

 

Adan’s position paper was published a few days after the announcement by the Governing Council of the European Central Bank of the launch of the investigation phase of its 2-year digital euro project.

➡️ Read the position paper

Work

The month of July saw an increase in work and meetings with regulators, ministries, parliamentarians, and industry associations on a number of subjects, including:

  • The regime for digital asset service providers, the related registration procedure and the need for clarification: legal analysis note and AML/CFT methodological guide in progress.
  • The gaps in the dialogue between the crypto and banking spheres.
  • The development of decentralised finance and the appropriate regulatory treatment.
  • Taxation of crypto-assets: Adan’s proposed amendments.
  • The need for training (initial and ongoing) of blockchain developers and crypto-finance specialists.
  • The inclusion of French innovation and Fintech in the priorities of the next presidential campaign.

The association also convened several of its Working Groups and Committees before the summer break:

  • The Prospects/DeFi Working Group (5 July) ;

  • The Legal and Fiscal Committee (15 July);

  • The European Affairs Working Group (26 July).

European focus

The month of July allowed us to make progress on many cross-cutting issues and to carry out various actions at the European level:

  • [Digital Euro] Publication of our position paper (see Publications above);
  • [LCB-FT] Adan’s hearing in the framework of the evaluation of France by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF);
  • [MiCA and pilot scheme] Discussions with the ACPR’s Fintech-Innovation Unit, the DGT’s Economic Financing Department and Luc Rochtus (policy advisor to the European Parliament).

Adan’s European work is also conducted in the context of the European Crypto Initiative.

Speaking opportunities

During the month of July, Adan took part in several events:

  • Intervention at the dinner-debate on cybersecurity organised by the Club Innovation et transformation numérique on Wednesday 7 July;

  • The organisation of the first edition of the “Crypto Finance Forum” by Adan on 19 July (see our publications above);

  • Organisation of the “French Track / Future of France” conference on the morning of 20 July as part of the EthCC

The Association was also invited to share its vision:

Member News

  • Bpifrance: Sponsor of the VC part of EthCC. It was great to help international VCs exchange with great European crypto projects! A big thank you to Kaiko and Ehereum France for the quality of the event. Read more
  • Coinhouse: Launch of a marketing campaign “the interest-free shop” with the Marcel agency to encourage the French to diversify their savings, particularly with crypto-assets. Read more
  • CryptElite: CryptElite dévoile l’envers du décor de sa plateforme de gestion et de ses stratégies algorithmiques. Read more
  • Elements Energy: Successfully formed Digital Mango SAS which will take over all Blockchain activities related to our business. Read more
  • Gide 255 : The European Commission published on 20 July a set of proposals to reform the European framework on the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing, proposing in particular the creation of a dedicated European authority and taking up certain FATF proposals. Read more
  • iExec: On the 4th edition of EthCC, Gilles Fedak, CEO and co-founder of the company, presented the iExec Oracle Factory: an interface that makes oracles accessible to everyone, allowing developers to create their own oracles in less than 5 minutes, in a few clicks and without blockchain skills. Read more
  • Nomadic Labs: Ipocamp chooses Tezos for its intellectual property solution. Read more
  • Ownest: Ownest participated, via its co-founder and Head of Blockchains, Quentin de Beauchesnes, in a podcast of the Cryptoast media, dedicated to NFT tokens. This was a good opportunity to recall the basics and to present a more serious use: supply chain traceability. Read more
  • Paladin: Intervention at EthCC on the need for activism in decentralised finance. Read more
  • Scorechain: The number of active customers at Scorechain exceeds 100 this summer, a year-on-year increase of 40%. Scorechain is nominated for a WorldFestival 2021 Innovation Award. Vote for Scorechain before 10 August to help it become a top 50 startup! Read more
  • Sesterce: We were lucky enough to be awarded the BPI innov competition on our research topics in energy optimisation via mining!
  • We fundia: The We fundia team is pleased to announce the launch of refundia.eu, its secondary market place for unlisted bond debt. On Re fundia, entrepreneurs take back control of their debt movement register and funders can exchange bonds in complete security. Read more

New members

Since the beginning of July, we have welcomed four new members, welcome to them!

Lugh: Issuer of stable digital assets backed by the euro.

Mithras Labs Paladin: Creator of coordination mechanisms for governance.

PayInnov: Publisher of crypto-asset payment solution for retail.

Sesterce: Crypto-mining specialist developing solutions to open up mining to as many people as possible.