ROMANIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Alexandru Stanescu, Simina Negulescu, Anca Popan and Mihai-Cristian Huială, Lexters
exchange association, financial market code admin- istrator or statutory professional body. In practice, policy discussions are carried out through individual market participants, law firms and European associations. Crypto-asset market participants are regularly invited to public consultations organised by public authorities in connection with upcoming regu- lations. 2. Regulation 2.1 Regulators and International Alignment ASF and BNR Competences The ASF is expected to become the main authority for CASPs, ART issuers and issuers or offerors of crypto- assets other than ARTs and EMTs. The BNR is expect- ed to supervise EMT issuance by credit institutions and electronic money institutions, as well as payment institutions, electronic money institutions and banks under existing sectoral law. The draft Romanian MiCA emergency ordinance expressly separates these com- petences between the ASF and BNR and provides for co-operation between them. AML Authority The National Office for Prevention and Combating of Money Laundering (ONPCSB) is the financial intelli- gence unit and AML authority. It receives suspicious transaction reports, supervises AML compliance for relevant reporting entities and co-ordinates the national AML risk response. Law No 129/2019 now uses MiCA-related terminology, including crypto- assets and CASPs. Other Relevant Authorities The National Authority for Consumer Protection (ANPC) may be relevant where retail users are tar- geted, especially in relation to unfair terms, misleading advertising, digital services and distance contracts. The National Agency for Fiscal Administration (ANAF) is relevant for income tax, corporate tax, VAT and cryp- to-asset reporting. The National Supervisory Authority for Personal Data Processing (ANSPDCP) supervises GDPR compliance, while the National Cyber Secu- rity Directorate (DNSC) is relevant for cybersecurity matters and for the implementation of Directive (EU)
2022/2555 on measures for a high common level of cybersecurity (NIS2). International Alignment Romania’s approach is closely aligned with EU and international standards. Supervisory interpretation tracks EU law, European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and European Banking Authority (EBA) guidance, FATF AML standards and EU-level supervisory convergence, rather than a separate domestic doctrine. For cross-border operators, this means Romanian outcomes are predictable from the same EU materials they already work with. 2.2 Crypto-Asset Regulatory Frameworks Classification of Crypto-Assets A crypto-asset may fall under MiCA, but only if it is not already regulated as: • a financial instrument; • a deposit; • a structured deposit; • a fund unit; • a securitisation position; • an insurance product; • a pension product; • a payment instrument; or • another excluded instrument. MiCA applies this technology-neutral logic uniformly, and Romanian law does not layer a separate clas- sification on top. Interaction with MiFID II Where a token has the characteristics of a transferable security, fund unit, money market instrument or deriv- ative, it falls within the MiFID II and capital markets framework rather than MiCA. The relevant Romanian implementing law is Law No 126/2018 on markets in financial instruments, and the general principle is that tokenised securities are characterised by their eco- nomic substance rather than their digital form. MiCA Categories Within MiCA, crypto-assets that are not excluded from its scope fall into three main categories. EMTs are crypto-assets that purport to maintain a stable value by reference to a single official currency. Asset-
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