FRANCE Law and Practice Contributed by: Hubert de Vauplane and Hugo Bordet, Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP
• the issuer was a legal entity incorporated in France, or at least registered in France through a branch; • the white paper and the marketing materials were accurate, written in plain language and not misleading; and • the issuer planned to implement adequate procedures to track and safeguard the funds raised in the ICO. The AMF visa was optional. In addition to this regime, the ANC published a regulation in December 2018 which established the accounting rules applicable to ICO issuers and ICO investors. This regulation also clari - fied the tax treatment of ICO issuers and inves - tors, as fiscal and accounting rules were closely related. Since the entry into force of MiCAR and the adoption of Order No 2024-936 of 15 October 2024 on crypto-asset markets, this regime has been repealed. However, token issuers author - ised to issue tokens under this regime may con - tinue to do so until the end of the grandfathering period on 30 June 2026. From now on, any crypto-asset issuer looking to operate in France must prepare a white paper outlining key details of the planned issuance. If the issuance involves ARTs or EMTs with a stable value and the issuer’s home state is France, they must obtain prior authorisation from the ACPR and submit a white paper. For all other crypto- assets, the issuer simply needs to notify the AMF in advance and provide a white paper. In all cases, the white paper must provide a clear and complete overview of the operation. It should cover key details about the offeror, issu - er and platform operator, along with the cryp -
to-asset project, its public offering or trading admission, the nature of the crypto-asset, the rights and obligations it entails, the underlying technology, associated risks and any significant environmental impact. All information must be fair, transparent and not misleading. The white paper should be struc - tured in a concise and accessible manner, and must not omit any material facts. 10.5 Regulation of Blockchain Asset Trading Platforms Until now, crypto-assets were governed by the framework established by the PACTE Act, which required crypto-asset service providers to be registered or licensed as a DASP with the AMF. This regime remained in place until 30 Decem - ber 2024. Since that date, it has no longer been possible to be registered or licensed as a DASP. Entities that held this status will not be able to continue providing crypto-asset services after 30 June 2026, unless they obtain a CASP licence. Registration as a DASP Four services in digital assets require the per - son providing them to register with the AMF as a DASP: • the service of custody of digital assets on behalf of third parties; • the service of buying or selling digital assets in legal currency; • the service of exchanging digital assets for other digital assets; and • the operation of a digital asset trading plat - form. Such registration mostly triggers the application of AML legislation – there are no other substan - tial rules that apply to registered DASPs.
270 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook