FINLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Olli Kiuru, Mia Rintasalo and Essi Hietaoja, Waselius
as a financial instrument as defined in MiFID II, Finnish securities laws apply to the offer instead. In such cases, the issuer must comply with securities legislation, including the obligation to publish a prospectus approved by the FIN-FSA before offering the securities to the public. 10.5 Regulation of Blockchain Asset Trading Platforms Operating trading platforms for crypto-assets such as blockchain assets or facilitating the exchange of crypto-assets for funds or other crypto-assets requires authorisation from the FIN-FSA under MiCAR. Regarding secondary market trading, MiCAR captures transactions both through intermedi - aries and P2P when such activities qualify as crypto-asset services. If intermediaries facilitate trading, they are subject to authorisation and operational requirements under MiCAR. How - ever, users with self-hosted wallets can hold their private keys and digital assets while directly sending or receiving assets in a P2P manner. In such cases, neither the wallet software provider nor the wallet itself effectuates transactions on the user’s behalf and is not required to obtain authorisation (as there is no crypto-asset service provider involved). Notwithstanding, although P2P transactions generally fall outside MiCAR’s primary regulatory focus, they may still trigger regulatory obligations if the platform or facilitator undertakes intermediary-like functions, such as providing custody services or order matching. 10.6 Staking MiCAR does not explicitly regulate staking, as the term itself is not mentioned within the reg - ulation. This absence has led to interpretative challenges regarding its applicability to stak - ing services. However, the provision of staking services may involve elements that fall within
MiCAR’s scope. For instance, if a service pro - vider engages in the custody or administration of crypto-assets or private keys on behalf of cli - ents, these activities could trigger authorisation requirements under MiCAR. In addition, EBA and ESMA have recently high - lighted potential risks associated with crypto- asset staking, suggesting that certain aspects of staking services could trigger regulatory require - ments. The FIN-FSA has not issued any further guidance or regulations regarding staking ser - vices. 10.7 Crypto-Related Lending MiCAR does not apply to the lending and bor - rowing of crypto-assets, but this is subject to applicable national law. Under Finnish law, to the extent that no repayable funds are raised from the public (only licensed credit institutions have the right to engage in credit institution activ - ity, which means business operations where repayable funds are received from the public and credit or other financing is offered for own account), the provision of loans and other simi - lar financing to corporate customers is generally permissible in Finland. This applies also in rela - tion to crypto-assets. However, the lending of crypto-assets to con - sumers is subject to obtaining a separate right. This would, for example, mean obtaining a pay - ment or credit institution licence or, if no such a licence is obtained, a registration under the Finn - ish Act on the Registration of Certain Credit Pro - viders and Credit Intermediaries, as described in 4.1 Differences in the Business or Regulation of Fiat Currency Loans Provided to Different Entities .
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