Business

Malta is the First Country to Enact the Full Legal Framework That Regulates Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies

Legislation Also Introduces New Terminology

While countries around the world are struggling to regulate ICOs as the innovative means of fundraising, Malta has everything in place to become the springboard for crypto-related businesses in the form of the Digital Innovation Authority Act.

The country’s openness to cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies has lured the giants of the business like Binance, Okex, and Bitbay to relocate their operations to Malta.

Malta’s Prime Minister and the Head of the Labour Party, Joseph Muscat proudly announced via Twitter that

Malta is officially the first country worldwide to have holistic legislative framework regulating blockchain & DLT technologies

and then prophetically declared: “We will be the global hub for market leaders in this new sector.”

If somebody is wondering about the meaning of DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) technologies, this isn’t the only new definition that the legislator introduced to the act. There is also a DLT Asset definition, marking a “virtual token; a virtual financial asset or a financial means, that is intrinsically dependent on or uses Distributed Ledger Technology.”

Consequently, we will be trading on DLT Exchanges, which can be explained as a synonym of what is popularly known as a cryptocurrency exchange.

The other new term introduced is a virtual financial asset (VFA), representing “any form of digital medium recordation that is used as a digital medium of exchange, unit of account, or store of value and that is not – electronic money; a financial instrument; or a virtual token.”

Subsequently, Malta will have Initial VFA Offering and VFA exchanges, which will offer the services of exchanging virtual financial assets (VFAs) exclusively.

The new legislation, among other things, strictly prohibits insider trading, market manipulation, and any misleading information presented to the investors.

According to the official announcement published in Malta’s Government Gazette, the penalties for infringement are intended to be severe.

“A fine of up to fifteen million euro (€15,000,000) or up to three times the profits made or losses avoided by virtue of the offence, and imprisonment for a term not exceeding six years, or both,” can be considered as enough of a warning for anyone hoping to get away with administrative penalties or just losing a license.

However, even though the vast majority of people within crypto-community reacted positively to the Prime Minister’s Twitter announcement, some of them remain skeptical of Malta’s ability to enforce its laws.

One negative comment from Twitter user Ann Marlowe catches the attention.

“Read this about new laws in Malta that create Franken Corporations way beyond the ability of the country or the Eu to regulate,” she started before asking what seems to be a legitimate question: “The island that has had 5 unsolved broad daylight car bombings in recent years is going to regulate a new type of legal personhood?”

Although legitimate, that is the question only time can answer.

Luka Kapetanic

An ex-restaurant business owner turned cryptocurrency fanatic, with over 12,000 followers on investfeed.com. Miner, Investor, trader and, above everything else - a writer, with coinlive.io, and cryptodigest.com in his jobs portfolio.

Related Articles

76 Comments

  1. Hola! I’ve been following your blog for a while now and finally got the courage to go ahead and give you a shout out from Kingwood Tx! Just wanted to say keep up the excellent job!

  2. Travaillant avec certaines des plus grandes entreprises des Hauts-de-France de différents secteurs, j’exerce principalement à Lille comme Consultant en Référencement Naturel en Indépendant (Freelance) et chez l’annonceur. J’ai toujours obtenu des résultats concrets.

  3. I’m impressed, I have to say. Really not often do I encounter a weblog that’s both educative and entertaining, and let me tell you, you will have hit the nail on the head. Your concept is excellent; the problem is something that not sufficient persons are speaking intelligently about. I am very completely happy that I stumbled across this in my search for something relating to this.

  4. Hiya very cool website!! Guy .. Excellent .. Wonderful .. I’ll bookmark your website and take the feeds alsoKI am happy to search out numerous useful information here within the publish, we’d like work out more techniques in this regard, thank you for sharing. . . . . .

  5. Great website. Lots of useful info here. I am sending it to several friends ans also sharing in delicious. And of course, thanks for your effort!

  6. I have noticed that car insurance firms know the cars and trucks which are at risk from accidents as well as other risks. In addition, they know what sort of cars are given to higher risk as well as higher risk they’ve already the higher a premium rate. Understanding the uncomplicated basics regarding car insurance will help you choose the right types of insurance policy which will take care of your preferences in case you happen to be involved in any accident. Many thanks sharing the ideas in your blog.

  7. Thanks for your post. Another point is that being photographer entails not only difficulties in taking award-winning photographs but in addition hardships in establishing the best dslr camera suited to your needs and most especially issues in maintaining the grade of your camera. This is certainly very real and evident for those photography fans that are straight into capturing the actual nature’s exciting scenes – the mountains, the forests, the wild or perhaps the seas. Going to these exciting places surely requires a photographic camera that can live up to the wild’s hard natural environment.

Close