The year 2021 is off to a fantastic start. Crypto-assets have seen an enormous boost in their use; their total market cap is at an all-time high and signals are showing positive traction: investments on the rise, interest from the general public and industrialists, awareness of the benefits of public blockchains, stablecoins o public networks for US banks, etc.

And yet, at the same time, so much progress is needed. In France, DASP registrations create barriers for many businesses, and the Economic Minister continues to paint crypto-assets as instruments of “money laundering and terrorist financing.” At the EU level, regulators have their eyes set on the “mirage” stablecoin project. Simultaneously, the industry fears future regulations could ban many of the most innovative applications for crypto.

Thus this early 2021 is bittersweet. Fortunately, Adan is more than ready to confront the challenges ahead and savour every small victory towards progress. We’ve published our 2020 retrospective and 2021 strategic outlook, which summarises where we think the industry could be heading in the next years. We’ve also discussed with many partners and interlocutors to take stock of the sector (AMAFI, AFG, Finance Innovation, Bpifrance, DGT, ACPR, AMF). Adan has responded to testimony on the digital euro, CSDR and the draft MiCA regulations and pilot scheme. In this respect, we’re engaging in very promising dialogues European institutions within the EUCI initiative led by Adan in particular. We hope this work will help to make Europe attractive for decentralised applications, DeFi and regulated stablecoins. Do not hesitate to join us on these fronts.

With that, the Adan team wishes you all, more than ever, an excellent New Year 2021!

Simon Polrot Adan President

Publications

Adan’s 2021 strategic Vvsion

The year 2020 has been exceptional for good and bad reasons. While the economic and health crisis has affected the entire economy and all industries, the development of crypto-assets markets has continued: institutionalisation, regulation, adoption, innovation and even inflation. In this document, Adan offers a review of the past year’s most significant events and share our forecast for the evolution of the industry in 2021. The Association also makes some recommendations to the public and private sectors and users of digital assets, to support the momentum of 2020 and the promises of 2021. ➡️ Read the article

Revision of CSDR regulation: Adan confirms the need to preserve innovativeness

In its response to the European Commission’s consultation on the review of CSDR, Adan confirms the need for regulatory adaptations for the settlement of security token transactions. We propose an alternative methodology to better consider the benefits of blockchains and crypto-assets regarding the purposes of CSDR. ➡️ Read the testimony

Digital Euro: Adan issues its recommendations to the European Central Bank

Through its participation in the ECB’s public consultation, Adan provides its vision of the fundamentals and challenges associated with the issuance of a digital euro and answers the Bank’s questions. ➡️ Read the testimony

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European framework for crypto-assets: Adan’s analysis and proposals

In a general position paper and two detailed analysis papers addressed to the European Commission, Adan presents its vision and proposals for improving the draft texts on issuance and market activities on crypto-assets. ➡️ Read the testimony

The French regulatory framework for digital asset markets

In December, we published an article in English detailing the regulatory framework for digital assets as implemented in France. It particularly discusses the legal definition of tokens and digital assets, the AMF’s “ICO visa”, and the two registration and approval regimes for DASPs. ➡️ Read the article

BUIDL in France conference

During the BUIDL in France conference organised by the Association on 8 December, the team proposed a summary in English of this regulatory framework, new to France, as part of a more general presentation of the advantages of our “crypto-nation” and its areas for improvement. ➡️ Read the conference summary

Work in progress

2020 state of the crypto-asset industry: Adan prepares its report

On the Association’s first anniversary and the preparation of its annual report, we launched a survey for digital asset professionals. The objective was to collect quantitative and qualitative data on the industry’s state, its strengths, weaknesses and above all its needs.

This survey, now closed, will be the subject of a report available soon.

DASPs: a rough start for 2021

On 18 December 2020, DASPs engaged in digital asset custody and/or crypto-asset exchange activities can no longer operate without being registered with the Financial Markets Authority (AMF). This means that the many players whose applications are still being processed by the authorities have a long wait ahead. Processing times and the lack of visibility and information on the progress are sources of great frustration. On these issues, Adan continues to dialogue regularly with the authorities and elected representatives.

 
Adan reminds DASPs providing crypto-asset exchange services and/or operating a digital asset trading platform that they must register by 18 June to be authorised to maintain their activity in the second half of 2021. This is why these players must file their applications with the AMF.
 

EUCI

The European Crypto Initiative, launched by Adan, Bundesblock and Blockchain Think Thank Slovenia, is a group aimed at communicating to European institutions the industry’s positions on major issues concerning cryptoassets (competitiveness of the industry, stablecoins, decentralisation, functioning of the markets…)

More information on the EUCI website

Speaking engagements

The month of January gave the Adan several opportunities to speak publicly.

On a webinar organised by ORWL Avocats, we shared our analysis of the impact of the ordinance of 9 December 2020, which extends the scope of compulsory registration to new service providers.

IRT SystemX invited Adan to give an exhaustive overview of the innovations brought about by crypto-assets and the issues at stake for the industry.

At the first 2021 meeting of Think Tank LaBChain, we presented the work carried out by Adan and its members, our collaboration with INATBA, and presented the recommendations we have made to regulators. Adan’s response to the Commission’s consultation (see above) was usefully nourished by these numerous and constructive discussions.

News from our members

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News from our members

  • Chainalysis: Chainalysis congratulates its government partners for the dismantling of the Ransomware NetWalker network that claimed at least 22 victims in France, and we are proud that our investigative tools helped them to recover the funds. Read more
  • Coinhouse: Coinhouse’s crypto-asset portfolio, developed by our experts according to strict selection criteria, performed well in January 2021. For investors with an offensive profile, we offered a return on investment of 106% against the Euro and even 80% against Bitcoin! Read more
  • COQONUT: We partnered with tax expert Bruzzo & Dubucq to enable our users to receive personalised tax advice. Read more
  • Kaiko: Kaiko was selected by Bloomberg and appointed OpenFIGI Official Agent in order to create a new global standard of classification for cryptosystems (FIGI: Financial Instrument Global Identifier). Read more
  • Nomadic Labs: The Blockchain Group joins the Tezos ecosystem as an institutional baker. Read more
  • Ownest: For its logistics traceability solution, Ownest won the transformation prize at the Retail Tech Live 2020 Trophies. Simultaneously, we were selected to contribute to the #InnoVaccines program, which aims to secure and optimize AstraZeneca’s vaccination campaign alongside nine other startups. Read more
  • Request: Adan migrates to Request to invoice members’ subscriptions now payable in FIAT or Crypto. Read more
  • Scorechain: Scorechain publishes a report that provides a status of money laundering and terrorist financing via decentralized exchange platforms (DEX) by analyzing the five most traded cryptos on the four most popular DEXs in 2020. Read more
  • Woorton: Charlie Meraud, CEO of Woorton, was the guest of Caroline Lamaud’s Argent Conté podcast. Read more

New members

Since the beginning of December, we have welcomed 2 new members!

  • BitPanda : Cryptoasset trading platform registered with the AMF.
  • Moonce : Cryptoasset trading platform.