E-money tokens are a substitute for legal tender coins and banknotes and serve the function of payment instruments. They are completely similar to the e-money regulated by the European Directive 2009/110/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of September 16, 2009 (so-called EMD2).The MiCA regulation expressly states that e-money tokens are equated with electronic money and provides that Titles II and III of the EMD2, i.e., the provisions of the Electronic Money Directive governing the conditions for the commencement, operation and prudential supervision of the business of electronic money institutions, as well as those governing the issuance and redeemability of electronic money, respectively, apply to e-money tokens generally, except as otherwise provided in the MiCA regulation itself. However, notwithstanding the principle of technological neutrality, according to which the same rules apply to the same business involving the same risks, MiCA Regulation regulates e-money tokens with rules that are partly different from the regulatory paradigm of traditional electronic money, although this regulatory difference does not always seem to be necessitated by the need to regulate peculiarities related to the new technological characteristics of the payment instruments in question.
1. Caratteristiche e funzioni dello strumento. – 2. La disciplina applicabile agli EMT. – 3. Emissione di token di moneta elettronica: soggetti abilitati. – 4. L’attività di emissione di moneta elettronica, offerta al pubblico, richiesta di ammissione alla negoziazione. – 5. Caratteristiche dell’emissione: token di moneta elettronica significativi. – 6. Obbligo di rimborso. – 6.1. Piano di risanamento e di rimborso. – 7. Divieto di interessi. – 8. White paper: contenuto, pubblicazione, comunicazione. – 9. Comunicazioni di marketing.