The legal sector is facing a real revolution with the advent of crypto-assets, which requires advanced legal and technological skills for issuers and managers. Regulation (EU) 2023/1114, known as MiCAR (crypto-asset markets), which came into force on 30 December 2024, introduces in the European Union a harmonised framework for the issuance and management of crypto-assets not regulated by other EU laws. In addition, the Nis2 regulations and Digital Operational Resilience Act (Dora), which redefine the security of critical infrastructure and the operational resilience of the financial sector.
Our partner Avv. Claudio Bonora and our associate Avv. Gianmaria Pesce have recently analyzed the critical issues of the new regulation on the pages of ItaliaOggi:
“Compared to the MiCAR Regulation and the burdens related to the authorization to operate and transparency, we highlight how the circumstance that crypto-asset issuers must obtain an authorization to operate implies a long and expensive process that can be particularly burdensome for Italian start-ups and SMEs, usually not accustomed to dealing with regulatory authorities.
Fulfilling the compliance obligations under the regulation already in force actually translates into significant increases in legal, consulting and operational costs. For example, continuous monitoring, transparency obligations and risk management may require additional human and technological resources, which not all companies can sustain, especially in a market like the Italian one where SMEs are numerous.
In general, as already highlighted, it is believed that excessive regulation could discourage innovation in the crypto-asset sector in Italy”.
“As for Dora, however,, we note that, with respect to the adaptation needs required by the regulation, Italian financial entities will have to invest in more resilient ICT infrastructures, including software and hardware updates, and procedures for managing IT risks. This certainly represents an additional financial burden compared to the operations intended up to now, but it is aimed at a group of actors, namely financial entities, which, normally, are not structured as SMEs and therefore have a different capacity to absorb the related costs.
For the time being we have had the opportunity to deal more with the consultancy activity aimed at identifying the areas of activity of our clients in which it is most necessary to intervene in order to comply with the legislation.
We know of the existence of law firms that have deemed it appropriate to integrate with structures that provide services in the field of technological innovation, but this is not our choice”.
The new MiCAR and Dora regulations present significant challenges for Italian companies, especially SMEs and start-ups, due to compliance costs and the need for technological adaptation. It is essential that companies fully understand the scope of these new requirements and adequately prepare to ensure compliance and competitiveness in the market.
