MiCA: even banks are interested

After the European Parliament approved the regulation on cryptocurrency markets (MiCA or now MiCAR) last year, work is underway to implement it. Now even commercial banks seem to be interested in investing in digital currencies.

Major banks are slowly becoming familiar with cryptocurrencies

Lukas Enzersdorfer-Conrad, vice president of cryptocurrency exchange Bitpanda, believes that thanks to MiCAR, European banks are slowly but surely getting into the cryptocurrency business. This is because the law provides them with regulatory clarity and hence they are willing to take risks.
According to the CEO, this is also due to tokenization. Banks are willing to invest not only in volatile cryptocurrencies but also to place traditional assets on blockchain.
Many large banks from around the world have been testing tokenized assets for several years. France's Societe Generale joined this list late last year by introducing a euro-stablecoin. The same can be said for a number of major German financial giants. Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) recently announced that it was launching a cryptocurrency.
But ironically, they don't yet have the expertise to do this on a large scale. Now that governments are providing clarity, they suddenly want to enter the market. This is why they are partnering with companies like Bitpanda.

The MiCAR cryptocurrency law is almost introduced

MiCAR was officially passed last year, but the law has yet to be fully implemented. This process has been dragging on. The part regarding stablecoins should be finalized and come into effect this summer, while everything else will start to take effect next December.
Interestingly, the European head of ESMA himself recently said that the cryptocurrency market hasn't changed that much since then. So it will still take time, but the stablecoin part will be very important. In addition, cryptocurrency companies can start preparing now by applying for a license.