EBA reports on crypto-assets

[Diversee]

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published on 9th of January the results of its assessment of the applicability and suitability of EU law to crypto-assets.

Link: https://eba.europa.eu/documents/10180/2545547/EBA+Report+on+crypto+assets.pdf

[Diversee]

"The following examples, included in this report for illustrative purposes only, demonstrate cases in which one or more competent authorities have assessed a proposed business model and determined that a crypto-asset would qualify as ‘electronic money’. Company A wishes to create a Blockchain-based payment network. The network is open meaning that both merchants and consumers can participate. Company A explains that it intends to issue a token which is intended to be the means of payment in the network. The token is issued on the receipt of fiat currency and is pegged to the given currency (e.g. EUR 1 to 1 token). The token can be redeemed at any time. The actual payment on this network is the underlying claim against Company A or the right to get the claim redeemed.

 

In the assessment of the competent authority the token:

a) is electronically stored;

b) has monetary value;

c) represents a claim on the issuer;

d) is issued on receipt of funds;

e) is issued for the purpose of making payment transactions;

f) is accepted by persons other than the issuer.

 

Therefore, in the assessment of the competent authority, Company A’s proposed token satisfies the definition of ‘electronic money’ under the EMD2."

 

How do you think this relates to IOUs issued by different ripple gateways that accept EUR (SEPA) deposits to issue their IOUs? If gateway only issue IOUs that are used on its platform in order to avoid volatility then I assume it does not qualify as regulated "electronic money"?

[GiddyUp]

37 minutes ago, Diversee said:

The token can be redeemed at any time. The actual payment on this network is the underlying claim against Company A or the right to get the claim redeemed.

This requirement seems a little vague - underlying claim against/redeemed by the issuing company? At market price, at purchase price? - does Company A have to keep reserves equal to the issued tokens? Maybe all the answers are deeper in the documents, but I haven't time to read right now.

BTW, welcome to the forum! You now have your first "like"