The long-awaited EU Pilot Regime creating a provisional
regulatory framework to test the use of distributed ledger
technologies ("DLT") in market
infrastructures has been adopted. Regulation (EU) 2022/858 on a
pilot regime for market infrastructures based on distributed ledger
technology, and amending Regulations (EU) No 600/2014 and (EU) No
909/2014 and Directive 2014/65/EU, was published on 2 June 2022
("Pilot Regime").
EU financial services legislation was not designed with
distributed ledger technology and crypto-assets in mind, and
contains provisions that potentially preclude or limit the use of
DLT in the issuance, trading and settlement of crypto-assets that
qualify as financial instruments. At the same time, regulatory gaps
exist due to legal, technological and operational specificities
related to the use of DLT and to crypto-assets that qualify as
financial instruments.
