Firms are often unprepared to meet the demands of newly introduced regulations, especially in the crypto sphere. MiCA is no expectation.

For most enterprises involved with crypto trading covering exchanges, proprietary trading firms, hedge funds, and the sell-side in the native crypto and TradFi markets, this will be the first time they come into the scope of a major piece of crypto regulation.

A survey of 68 of these firms, conducted by Acuiti in association with Eventus, found that 25% that expect to be covered by MiCA have not begun preparations, while only 9% say they are fully ready to go.

37% of firms coming under MiCA are looking at upgrading their market surveillance systems in the next 12-18 months to meet these demands, and 64% are planning to use third-party software for their market abuse and transaction monitoring processes.

Finding skilled surveillance staff has emerged as a major challenge of establishing MiCA-compliant surveillance systems, as reported by 73% of survey respondents, along with the associated costs of compliance.

Despite the lack of preparedness, the vast majority of firms are supportive of the framework, with 78% of those who strongly supported it coming from the native crypto markets.

Digital asset market participants are enthusiastic about MiCA, which promises to create a clear regulatory framework for the asset class that could unlock institutional investors’ participation.

The right staff and analysts would be those compliance experts who have a grasp of long-standing regulations like MiFID II and EU Market Abuse Regulation (MAR).

Acuiti describes MiCA as a “lighter version of MAR”.

“For firms that are not already operating under MIFID II, MiCA will present a significant operational lift to become compliant, and it is no surprise that we found that firms were looking to third-party vendors to assist them in their preparations,” said Ross Lancaster, Head of Research at Acuiti.

“There is a relative lack of awareness among some areas in the market as to who is in scope, which will need to be addressed if firms are going to have time to get ready for compliance.”