Non-fungible tokens (NFT’s) have been developed due technological innovations of the past decade. NFT’s are digital entities that are accessible through distributed ledger technology. The market for NFT’s has expanded significantly in recent years, which has left the legislation behind. The EU is currently working on Markets in Crypto-assets regulation (MiCAR) which intends to be the first EU-level regulation of its kind and will thus regulate crypto-assets. This thesis aims to investigate the legal status of NFT’s within EU law. The current definition of an NFT is of a purely technical nature and lacks a legal definition at an EU level. The interest in qualifying an NFT is based on the importance of investigating which legal sources are applicable when trading these assets. The definition of NFT’s and whether they are defined as a transferable security affects which legal acts, both existing and new, cover its legal regulation. All central banks within the EU, including the European Central Bank (ECB), have chosen not to define crypto-assets as a financial asset and no further development in terms of the qualification has been initiated. This essay considers with the classification of an NFT by systematically interpreting Article 4.1.44 of the MiFID II-directive whilst determining whether NFT’s constitute a transferable security. The conclusion will establish whether NFT’s are covered by MiFID II, as well as other legal acts on the securities market which deal with consumer- and investor protection and market integrity. On the contrary, if it is concluded that NFT’s are not defined as a transferable security, an investigation is instead further required to decide whether NFT’s should be regulated under MiCAR, or they are to remain unregulated. The objective is to investigate the legal challenges NFT trading can give rise to attributed to its technical structure and to investigate whether the EU’s package for the digitalizing of the financial sector, specifically MiCAR, intends to solve these.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-212502 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Celep, Dilara |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Juridiska institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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