The Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation was implemented to streamline crypto operations across Europe, but there is no doubt it has created new challenges for the nascent industry.

All providers registered in the European Union (EU) before 2025 must comply with MiCA requirements this year, and the latest predictions suggest around 75% may struggle to meet the new standards.

Zumo is focused on providing crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) across the continent with the knowledge and resources they now need to comply with MiCA, particularly the mandated sustainability disclosures.

As part of this work, Zumo’s senior team has been travelling extensively across Europe to take part in the Digital Assets Roundtable Expert Series (DARTE) organised by BlackVogel and siedler legal with the support of the EU Commission and Project Catalyst. And as co-organisers of the DARTE Paris Edition, we were proud to support a high-level discussion held at the French Ministry of Finance during Paris Blockchain Week.

The session convened policymakers, regulators, and industry leaders from across Europe to discuss the pressing challenges and opportunities around crypto regulatory implementation, MiCA alignment, and global competitiveness.

The engaging roundtable discussion opened with a keynote address by the European Commission’s Peter Kersten, who highlighted the broader strategic goals of MiCA within the EU’s digital finance agenda, and concluded with powerful closing remarks by Frederik Gregaard, CEO of Cardano Foundation, who reinforced the importance of aligning industry developments with policy evolution and long-term trust in the ecosystem.

Weighing up the regulatory burden

One of the day’s key voices was Zumo’s Deputy CEO, Devina Paul, who led a timely and critical session on UK compliance in the post-MiCA landscape.

At Zumo, we’re committed to helping build a sustainable, compliant, and inclusive crypto ecosystem. That’s why Devina’s topic for the day was particularly important, spotlighting how emerging UK crypto rules could pose new challenges for the very actors – startups and innovative SMEs – who should be driving adoption.

Zumo’s MiCA CASP Sustainability Readiness Assessment report highlighted a sustainability compliance knowledge gap amongst in-scope service providers, which we’re now seeking to bridge. Our report also found that most respondents saw the greatest risk of non-compliance was reputational damage (75%), followed by a loss of customers due to sanctions (69%), and a loss of customer trust (31%).

But there is something else important for CASPs to consider: the cost of compliance.

Devina outlined how recent proposals in the UK risk setting a higher compliance burden than MiCA in certain areas, with obligations that lack consolidation, clarity and detail on proportionality.

She noted, “The UK has a real opportunity to positively differentiate itself from the EU. By offering clear, detailed compliance guidance, it could avoid many of the implementation challenges currently emerging around MiCA and MiCA preparedness”

This conversation was crucial in terms of examining what it means for EU firms looking to expand into the UK and how to avoid building unintended barriers to market access.

The need for a more realistic rethink

Recent industry estimates put MiCA application compliance costs at some €60,000, which is then followed by a quarter million euros of associated compliance expense in the first year of operations, and over half a million in the second – leading some commentators to conclude that small businesses are being driven out of the EU.

Against this backdrop, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has started to present the outline of its future regulatory framework, beginning with specific admissions & disclosures and market abuse proposals.

In principle, the UK’s regulatory aim is to land somewhere between the US and the EU in terms of regulatory burden. But in compliance practice, it risks going even beyond the provisions included in MiCA.

For example, under the proposed regulations CASPs (or cryptoasset trading platforms/CATPs to use the UK terminology) would be mandated to publish their process for asset admission due diligence and approval/rejection of listings. Provisions have not been made for equivalency of disclosures documents with other jurisdictions (notably EU/MiCA); nor grace periods for already listed assets or even a CATP’s ability to re-use a disclosures document already filed with the regulator.

In addition to such specifics, rather than being consolidated into a single source, proposed cryptoasset rules on topics such as asset disclosures, for instance, will be scattered and overlapped across admissions and disclosures, financial promotions, consumer duty, and stablecoins rulesets.

Rules have been presented broadly as ‘one-size-fits-all’, with no specific activity-based proportionality, or differentiation of investor types or crypto typologies. And businesses have been given no indication of the run-in time they will be given to operationalise what are significant proposals.

This raises important questions for the future direction of rulemaking in the UK.

Providing the impetus for solutions

The aim of the roundtable discussion was to discuss how better outcomes can be achieved for the UK crypto industry – and in a way that makes it appealing as a market to expand into for European and international cryptoasset businesses.

Alongside expert contributions from Nathan Catania (XREG), who addressed the EU’s regulatory competitiveness in the face of US acceleration and Elsa Madrolle (VerifyVasp), who led a critical discussion on Travel Rule implementation at scale, addressing technical, legal, and compliance complexities across jurisdictions, the roundtable discussed the actions that could be taken to secure and maintain UK competitiveness.

In Zumo’s view, this includes:

• Introducing a crypto-specific handbook that consolidates cryptoasset applicable rules into a single, definitive source.

• Specifying that asset admissions documents already prepared and publicly filed on the FCA’s filing repository should be re-usable by all market participants subject to their own review and under their own liability.

• Allowing equivalency for a MiCA white paper to fulfil the UK asset disclosure requirement.

• Streamlining due diligence requirements by removing the added approval/rejection layer and removing the requirement to publicise.

• Categorising and distinguishing retail (even sophisticated retail) and professional investor types and the extent of disclosures appropriate for each.

• Defining the specific activity thresholds and proportionality exclusions that apply to, for instance, market abuse requirements or dealing reporting.

• Distinguishing varieties of cryptoassets (both by function and/or by market capitalisation) to provide tiered levels of disclosures appropriate to the asset in question.

We strongly echo the Paris roundtable’s key takeaway: the UK has a unique opportunity to foster a competitive yet innovation-friendly environment by embracing smarter compliance frameworks and aligning more closely with global regulatory developments, including MiCA.

The session highlighted once more why public-private collaboration is vital. As Devina succinctly stated, now is the moment to ensure that policy evolution remains rooted in real-world operational realities.

By fostering dialogue, championing actionable steps, and providing new, accessible solutions – such as  our award-winning Oxygen product – we are supporting the transition towards a more transparent, sustainable, and compliant crypto industry.

The full report of the Paris session is available to download at: Paris DARTE Roundtable | BlackVogel