Implications and opportunities of regulatory action for crypto assets

Abstract

Throughout the thesis we have examined the crypto market along with the EU pro-posed Markets in Crypto Assets regulation. With the objective of gaining an under-standing of what crypto assets entail, such as their components, possibilities, and risks. Furthermore, we have aimed to establish a fundamental understanding of blockchain technology, and the thesis is outlined to assess what the technology en-ables, and how a legislative framework can impact the markets associated. Crypto assets have mainly been unregulated the past decade in Europe, which is partly due to their decentralized nature and has led the crypto market to use com-puter codes as their code of conduct. The result of this has been an unprecedented number of scams, frauds, and some revolutionary innovations along with market uncertainty. In order for the market to gain integrity there is a need for a legislative framework that ensures stability, investor protection and promotion of innovation. Considering that the decentralized networks, in practice, is available to anyone, could make the regulatory enforcement challenging. Additionally, we cannot antic-ipate to what extent the market will react to the regulatory entrenchment.