November 2022 Newsletter

The crypto fall begins with an exciting and challenging month of October.

First of all, an intense October for France. The general context within the National Assembly necessarily impacts the crypto-asset tax proposals that the Association is carrying in the context of the 2023 Finance Bill. Despite difficult debates and limited room for maneuver on any subject, it seems easy and for all that fundamental that the PLF 2023 provides for the submission next year of a review of the French tax regime for crypto-assets, this review aiming at a better understanding of the adjustments required to facilitate both the financing of the real economy and the life of the taxpayer and the crypto entrepreneur. In parallel, while France wants to continue to weigh in on the structuring of the European industry and in particular through the work to be done to frame DeFi, Adan is organizing a series of meetings between delegations of decentralized finance entrepreneurs (DeFi) and the Minister Delegate to the Minister of Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty, in charge of the digital transition and telecommunications Jean-Noël Barrot. These meetings were open, efficient and enriching for all stakeholders. Finally, Adan is supporting France’s reflections on other subjects (see the “Work” section below): for example, the environmental issue, where the Association has made itself available to the Administration in the context of the current drafting of a report that deals with it, to be published in November.

A busy month of October for Europe as well. Not a week goes by without a new text or report from the European institutions and authorities concerning the crypto industry. Starting with the finalized MiCA and TFR regulations, further clarifying their entry into force in the first half of 2023 (see our “Publications” below). But also, ESMA’s Trends, Risks and Vulnerabilities report, which reiterates its fears about the systemic risk of the growth of crypto-asset markets; the EBA’s 2023 work program, which puts the spotlight on the regulation of the crypto sector; the European Commission’s Supra National Risk Assessment 2022, which re-classifies crypto-asset activities as “high risks”; or its EU Action Plan for digitizing the energy system, in which the debate on the environmental footprint of crypto-assets continues. At the same time, behind the scenes, regulatory work knows no vacations or vacations. It is therefore increasingly crucial for Adan to strengthen its presence outside our borders, which is illustrated by numerous trips such as to Brussels and Lisbon this month.

Finally, a rich month of October for Adan. Congratulations to the newly elected presidents and vice-presidents of the Legal, DeFi and NFT Committees of the Association who will carry and reinforce our action on each of these themes (discover who they are in our “Announcements” below). And to Melodie, who has been working hard with us for a year now! Welcome to Raliane Kinduelo, our new Executive Assistant and the promise of a great help. Finally, we have reached the 200 members mark! Thank you all for your trust and your commitment to the Association, its team and all its members.

Enjoy your reading!

Adan has now its 4 Committee Chairs

Following the elections that were completed in October, here are the four fantastic Adan Committee Chairmen! A very nice poster:

Morgane Fournel Reicher, Chair of the Legal Committee (Vice-Chair: William O’Rorke)
Nicolas Louvet, Chairman of the DASP Committee (Vice-Chairman: Mark Kepeneghian)
Frédéric Montagnon, President of the NFT Committee
Marc Zeller, President of the DeFi Committee (Vice-President : Alexis Masseron)

Their missions: To represent the members of their Committee to Adan’s interlocutors, to guide the Committees’ strategy, to help the Association’s team in order to ensure the proper conduct of each Committee’s missions and to catalyze their work.

“Control of DASPs by the French authorities: what to know, how to anticipate?”, an event by Gide and Adan

Gide and Adan are organizing a conference aimed at explaining and answering the questions of digital asset service providers (DASPs) on the contours of the controls carried out by the supervisory authorities. The conference will take place on Tuesday, November 29, starting at 6:30 pm at Gide Loyrette Nouel, Paris (15 Rue de Laborde, 75008).

Take my place

Adan is a partner of the Web3 Security Conference

Nefture, a member of the Association, organized a conference dedicated to the issues and challenges of security in Web3.

Adan is a partner of the 5th Assises des Technologies Financières

Our President will speak on the panel “What chances for Europe to win the payment battle?” and will explain the opportunities of crypto-assets in terms of sovereignty.

Adan expands and welcomes its new Executive Assistant Raliane Kinduelo

Welcome Raliane, the whole team and the members of Adan are delighted!

Publications

MiCA and TFR regulations: crypto-asset market participants see the end of the tunnel

On October 10, 2022, the European Parliament approved in committee the final versions of the Markets in Cryptoassets Regulation (MiCA) and the revised Funds Transfer Regulation (FTR) that were presented to it on October 5 by the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the Council of the European Union (COREPER). ➡️ Read the press release

Adan responds to Basel Committee consultation on prudential treatment of crypto-asset exposures

Between the need to preserve financial stability and the financial industry’s desire to experiment with this new asset class, Adan encourages the changes made by the Basel Committee since its first consultation, but believes that some limitations remain before the traditional financial world can fully embrace the crypto-asset sector. ➡️ View Adan’s response

BSMART replay: MiCA and TFR, Adan’s point of view

“MiCA is housing all stablecoins on the same level, because Europe no longer believes in the existence of truly decentralized stablecoins.”

In the microphone of Nicolas Pagniez in the Echos des crypto on B SMART, our President Faustine Fleuret comes back on the good and bad surprises of the future MiCA regulation. ➡️ Watch the replay

BPI France BIG 8 replay: Faustine Fleuret on the future of liquidity

“For over 10 years, blockchain and crypto-asset technologies have been at the heart of a general paradigm shift. From the Internet of information, we are moving to the Internet of value. From Web 2, we are moving to Web 3. From intermediaries, we are now placing our trust in code.

While these new technologies are now impacting almost every part of our economy, the world of finance is historically the first to be affected. Bitcoin is indeed a new means of exchange on the bangs of the existing system, totally decentralized. In its wake, many applications have been developed to overcome the pitfalls of traditional banking and finance. Among these, the central issue of liquidity.”

Watch the replay of our President Faustine Fleuret’s keynote at the eighth edition of BIG by BPI on the future of liquidity with Cédric MOREAU, Henri DE PERIGNON, Nathalie KORNHOFF-BRÜLS, Fabien WESSE. ➡️ Watch the replay

Work

As the end of the year approaches, Adan continues the work it has been doing throughout 2022.

On taxation. On Wednesday, October 19, the Prime Minister activated Article 49-3 of the Constitution in order to push the first part of the 2023 Finance Bill through the National Assembly. The entire bill must also be voted on by the Senate. The examination by the upper house is expected by the end of November.

In this context, Adan has proposed an amendment to request a government report to be submitted to Parliament within six months of the promulgation of the law in order to take stock of the tax system applicable in France.

The next Tax-Accounting WG scheduled for Wednesday, November 9 will also appoint the Rapporteur and Vice-Rapporteur of this WG.

Concerning the framework applicable to DASPs, the Association continues to accompany the developments around the DASP regime by participating in the reflections of the Authorities for the updating of the doctrine applicable to DASPs as well as in the reflections in progress on the communication campaigns that they implement. Adan also remains vigilant and is alarmed that the length of time it takes to register new providers is not being reduced. Finally, Adan is initiating discussions with certain insurers and insurance brokers to make it easier for DASPs to obtain professional liability insurance, particularly in the context of accreditation.

Concerning the influence and attractiveness of the crypto sector, motivated by the positive impact of the first edition of the study “Crypto in France: structuring and adoption by the general public”, the need to deepen the analysis and the figures, and the success of the restitution event, Adan is preparing a 2023 version of the study, whose objective will be to focus on the adoption of crypto-assets by French/European users. Sponsorship for this new edition is still open.

Regarding the role of the sector for the real economy, Adan prepared a note for the administration on the opportunities offered by crypto-assets for the growth of VSEs/SMEs in France. Ultimately, the underlying objective of this note was to remind that crypto-actifs and blockchain technologies have an impact on the economy in general, in any type of activity and regardless of the size of the targeted company.

Regarding the environmental issues related to crypto-assets, Adan and its Finance WG have drafted a mapping of the opportunities offered by crypto-assets for sustainable development and the ecological transition. This specific note tends to present, in a non-exhaustive way, the plurality of use cases offered by crypto-assets to achieve the objectives in terms of energy transition and sustainable development.

At the European level, the finalization of MiCA and TFR closes one chapter in order to reopen another: the regulation of DeFi and NFTs. Regarding the Regulation of Crypto-asset Markets (MiCA), the European Parliament approved in committee on October 10 the final versions of the Markets in Crypto-assets Regulation (MiCA) and the revised Funds Transfer Regulation (TFR) which had been presented on October 5 by the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the Council of the European Union (COREPER). However, these agreements raise concerns for the industry on important points:

While most non-fungible tokens (NFTs) were deemed to be excluded from the scope of MiCA, new clarifications have significantly narrowed the scope of this exclusion (including catching so-called broad collections and series of NFTs).
Algorithmic stablecoins will not be able to benefit from the exemptions granted to DeFi, as European co-legislators deny – wrongly – the existence of such decentralized crypto-assets.

In the area of anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT), the technical debates around the TFR were able to progress during the month of September. While the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union are expected to reach a compromise text by the end of November (or even the beginning of December), Adan remains a force for proposal with its various interlocutors to carry the voice of the crypto-asset sector.

As for the Pilot Regime Regulation (PRR), while its implementation is imminent, several structural difficulties remain in its implementation, considerably constraining the actors wishing to benefit from it and exposing them to significant legal uncertainties. Among these difficulties, the absence of an on-chain settlement asset is undoubtedly the most important. In this respect, Adan is preparing a note that will be sent to its interlocutors to find a solution to this problem that is saving the security tokens sector.

Concerning decentralized finance (DeFi), the Association wishes to participate in the reflections of the European Commission which will present, before the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, a report on decentralized finance as well as on the necessity and feasibility of regulating it. While this report should be finalized by 2024, Adan updates its position on the subject with its Legal and DeFi Committees.

Concerning NFTs (Non-fungible tokens), in the same way as DeFi, Adan intends to become one of the key forces in bringing the voice of NFT project holders to the attention of European institutions. As such, Frédéric Montagnon, Chairman of Arianee, was recently elected Chairman of our newly formed NFT Committee. The Committee’s objective will be to educate on this new asset class, to accompany the reflections – notably within the European institutions – on the regulation of NFTs and to respond to the various consultations on the subject in which Adan will be involved.

Regarding international work around crypto-assets, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) has published its proposal for the international regulation of crypto-asset activities, which includes:

Recommendations that promote consistency and comprehensiveness in approaches to regulation, oversight, and monitoring of crypto-asset activities and markets.
Revised high-level recommendations for the regulation, supervision and monitoring of global stablecoin devices.

This FSB work will be open for consultation until December 15. As such, Adan wishes to contribute and is preparing a response.

Interventions

Intervention in BSmart’s Smart Tech program (Tuesday, October 4)
ITW on the TV set of the Agefi AM Tech Day (Tuesday, October 4)
Speech on the future of liquidity at the BIG 8 conference (Thursday, October 6)
Participation in the debate “Metaverse and Bitcoin” – organized in Ittre by the Mouvement Réformateur (MR) – alongside Secretary of State Mathieu Michel, Axel Legay, Nicolas Vassaux and Thibault Verbiest (Thursday, October 6)
Holding of the event “Web 3: for democratization and against preconceived ideas”, as part of the French Fintech Week 2022 (Monday October 17)
Speech at the press conference inaugurating the opening of the NFT Factory (Tuesday 18 October)
Intervention at the Blockchain for Europe Summit in Brussels:
- Panel “Collaboration industrielle mondiale : points de vue du monde des crypto-monnaies” (mardi 25 octobre)
- Panel “Collaboration industrielle mondiale : points de vue du monde des crypto-monnaies” (mardi 25 octobre)
ITW for The Blog on MiCA (Thursday 27 October)
ITW on BSmart “MiCA & TFR : Adan’s point of view” in the Echo des cryptos (Wednesday, November 2)
Twitter space “What is Cosmos Hub #prop79 with Adan President Faustine Fleuret” hosted by Sébastien Couture @seb3point0 to defend Adan’s grant application (Wednesday, November 2)
Intervention at the Reg3 Conference in Lisbon on the panel “MiCA and implementation by NCAs” (Friday 4 November)

Members’ news

As a preamble we would like to remind all our readers that the Association stands by the crypto industry and users affected by the current difficult market environment. This one calls for important conclusions and reminders:

The technological foundations and possibilities are not at issue in this case.
The technological foundations and possibilities are not at issue in this case.
Regulation for centralized players is crucial. The necessary set of European rules is coming: MiCA and TFR, but the risk lies in the lack of harmonization at the international level which pushes citizens to less secure jurisdictions.
Self-hosted crypto wallets must be preserved from deterrent regulations. Assets in self-hosted wallets are not vulnerable to the failure of a central operator.
Traditional finance and DeFi present different opportunities and risks that must be arbitrated by users.

Acadee Blockchain Academy: The first class of Web3 Developers has just started at ACADEE! Sign up to be a member of the jury and get a sneak preview of these young talents. To know more about it

Ambrosia: After more than a year of hard work, the Crypto Piggy Bank is finally available! A solution to optimize your savings with an annual return of 5.5% only on stablecoins. To know more about it

Atlendis Labs: A new borrower is now present on the Atlendis protocol. A liquidity pool has been opened in favor of Parallel Capital, a market maker with an AA credit rating. More about Atlendis Labs

Blok immo : Blok is the first Web3 company to be incubated at Lab’O – Village by CA. To know more about Blok

Capsule Corp. Labs: TapNation, one of the largest French mobile game studios, will start building on the Ternoa blockchain to introduce web3 in their games. This implementation will be done by Capsule Corp. Labs. Read more

ComptaCrypto: We are launching our tax reporting assistance application, capable of recovering large volumes of transactions (up to several billion for one client). This tool includes a complete pre-accounting package to perform accounting for all cryptocurrency transactions reliably, quickly and in compliance with French regulations. Learn more

Exaion: EDF Group’s Web3 subsidiary expands into North America. To know more about Exaion

Galeon: The First NFT that gives Life in partnership with the association France Adot. To know more about it

iExec: We have officially launched the first Web3 incubator in Lyon, in partnership with H7. Four start-ups from the telemedicine, file sharing, retail and telecommunications sectors have joined the Web3 incubator for six months of support. To find out more, click here.

Kaiko: Kaiko rates now available on Bloomberg terminals. 50 reliable and independent prices to value your crypto-assets. Read more about Kaiko

Morpho Labs: A new era of Morpho tokens distribution has begun with 3.5 times more rewards on Morpho-Aave, for a total of $3.4MMMORPHO through November 27, 2022. Read more

Nefture: We organized a conference around Cybersecurity on blockchains on Thursday, November 17 at 6pm. It brought together several prestigious players including Ledger, ADAN, ANSSI, Rekt News, Stake DAO and Opengem. To know more about this event

Nomadic Labs: Starting Blocks, a web 3 strategy and project implementation consultancy, reinforces its involvement in the Tezos blockchain by becoming a corporate baker. This new position will allow this web 3 specialist to validate, secure and add transactions (blocks) to the Tezos blockchain. To know more about Tezos

Revo Avocats : Interventions of our founder, Axel Sabban, at the IFA tax morning dedicated to cryptos (on corporate taxation) and at the IACF conference “Tax issues of crypto-assets” (on taxation of individuals and companies).

SPAK: Anne-Claire Bennevault, Founder of BNVLT and of the SPAK platform unveils the results of her study on the financial education of people under 35. To know more about it

TILVEST: We announce our commercial launch and a fund raising of 500 000 €. To know more about it

Tokeny: We are partnering with EU-regulated digital securities trading platform Assetera to expand DINO’s distribution network, facilitating liquidity for tokenized securities. Read more

We fundia & Re Fundia : (Re) discover our mini-series of feedback on the CAST Challenge hackathon organized by Société Générale – Forge.

5 videos to share our vision of future developments in the settlement vs. delivery process of financial securities (Security Tokens) via a stablecoin or settlement asset.

Apprenez en plus sur le défi #2 (Universal Settlement Coin with native atomic settlement mechanism). En savoir plus

They joined us

Arao Avocats: Attentive to the needs of its Clients, ARAO Avocats offers personalized support and a range of legal services tailored to the operational constraints of its Clients and the expectations of regulators. Its areas of expertise are cryptoassets (including DASP registration/approval), NFT, digital tokens/ICO, investment services, anti-money laundering, payment services, AMF/ACPR controls.

Galeon: The First Healthcare Ecosystem on the Blockchain With its shared patient record between hospitals, Galeon allows to structure health data and to share the value generated with hospitals and patients thanks to its DAO.

HESIODE: 1st Web3 platform for asset managers.

Konkrete : Une rampe de lancement immobilière décentralisée.

Make Compliance Smart : Conseils en matière de réglementation et de conformité.

NFT Factory: The NFT Factory is the first physical place dedicated to Web3 and NFT. A hybrid space between tech, business and art, where curious people and professionals will be able to discover the NFT ecosystem, through the organization of events, conferences or training sessions. The initiative is supported by a collective of 128 artists, entrepreneurs, corporates and investors among the world leaders of the sector (Ledger, The Sandbox, Sorare, Arianee, MoCA, LaCollection, BlackPool, etc).

Openbanq : Consulting firm specialized in digital transformation for large groups, banks and transaction banking fintechs.

SOLAL TECH: SOLAL TECH allows users to secure, transmit and bequeath their digital crypto-assets.

TRESOFLOW : Trésoflow allows CGP/CIF, to train and access a multi DASP(s) product offer. We position ourselves as a link between the CGP/CIF profession and the Crypto ecosystem.