[Blockchain, cryptocurrencies, digital assets, tokenization of means of payment: our lawyers can assist]

Whether you are involved in banking, asset management or the world of blockchain, our multidisciplinary teams of lawyers, made up of recognised experts in the regulations of digital assets and in banking and finance law, will assist you in designing your strategy and in all your actions.

 

Whether you are a blockchain player or a financial institution, we can help you obtain DASP authorisations or banking and financial licenses thanks to our lawyers and our blended support!

 

To offer digital asset services to French investors, you will need to register as a DASP (digital asset service provider) with the AMF (Autorité des Marchés Financiers)! Under the 2019 Loi Pacte, the custody of digital assets on behalf of third parties and the purchase/sale of assets for legal tender must be compulsorily registered with the AMF as a DASP, on pain of criminal sanctions. You can also obtain a more restrictive, but optional, DASP license from the AMF for all services rendered. This will enable you to advertise and solicit consumers, and create the necessary trust for your development, giving you a major competitive edge in this highly competitive ecosystem. This unique legal framework makes France a very attractive place to do business! Indeed, French law has created a precursor regime that has directly inspired the European “MiCA” Regulation of April 20, 2023. This regulation will make it compulsory for crypto-currency providers to be licensed from 2025. This will facilitate the transition from the French to the European regime for players registered or licensed in France. France has already implemented a transitional regime which, from July 1, 2023, provides for “reinforced” DASP registration to anticipate the future requirements of the “MiCA” Regulation.

Moreover, if you are a player in digital finance looking to develop your offering in traditional finance, our lawyers can assist you with all your reporting and/or authorisation procedures, whether specific to digital asset regulations or more broadly linked to banking and financial regulations: DASP and MICA authorisations, trading platform approval, e-money issuer license, investment firm or payment services provider icense, portfolio management company license, etc.

 

With our lawyers, discover the many possibilities of tokenization in the world of finance!

 

• Tokenization of financial instruments

It’s possible to tokenize financial instruments (shares, bonds, fund units)! By way of illustration, our lawyers have acted on the first tokenization of bonds for the purpose of financing a solar power plant.

The development of these Security Tokens is currently being held back by the fact that financial regulations are not adapted to blockchain. Yet this is one of the segments for the future of the banking sector and financial institutions. Blockchain technology offers reliability, liquidity, reduced costs and speed in relation to the issuance and trading of these financial instruments. On the proposal of the French government, the European Commission has adopted an experimental regime, the “Pilot Regime”, which came into force on March 23, 2023. From now on, after obtaining authorisation from the regulators, given for a period of 6 years, banks and financial institutions or new actors can develop their security token projects on blockchain and take advantage of the tremendous opportunities offered by this new technology. Our lawyers can assist you in all the steps required to obtain exemption under the Pilot Regime from the AMF, the Banque de France and the Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution (ACPR).

In addition, asset managers or custodians can offer their customers tokenized fund units and switch several tasks to blockchain, radically modernizing their business. Our lawyers’ specialized skills in both traditional and digital assets portfolio management enable us to support players towards this revolution.

• Tokenization of payment instruments

Over the past few years, our lawyers have advised on and accompanied the major changes in payment methods, in particular the tokenization of traditional payment instruments such as bankcards, and all the synergies deployed by card-issuing payment service providers, payment schemes, and publishers of digital solutions and associated devices. As well as the “twinning” of these payment instruments with digital assets and crypto asset platforms.

The stakes are high. The ever-changing regulatory framework must be combined with business models, fluid customer paths, IT and financial security constraints, data control…

 

Excellent feedback from our clients:

 

• Mixed skills of our lawyers: understanding of two worlds (traditional finance and digital players, particularly blockchain and crypto assets), facilitating the handling of increasingly mixed projects.
• Optimisation of time and costs thanks to this global understanding.
• A full-service practice: Our lawyers assist you beyond these specific areas of expertise by meeting all your legal needs (business law, corporate law, tax, labor law, new technologies, intellectual property, GDPR, etc.) particularly when you want to set up your business in France.
• Partners recognised in their fields, one of whom having participated in the design of the DASP regulations in the 2019 Loi Pacte.
• Extensive experience with banking and financial regulators, and a coordinated approach to dealing with them.
• A long-standing practice in supporting the digitisation of the banking and financial world.

 

Read our experts’ latest publications on the subject below:

De Gaulle Fleurance assists Circle, the American crypto-currency giant, in establishing its services in France and Europe [Lire l’article], Henri-Nicolas Fleurance, Anne Maréchal et Cyril Tour