PORTUGAL Law and Practice Contributed by: João G Gil Figueira, Rodrigue Devillet Lima and Catarina Andrade Miranda, GFDL Advogados
As of December 2024, the MiCA Regulation is fully in force, establishing a comprehensive framework for crypto-assets within the EU. MiCA governs the issuance, public offering, and admission to trading of crypto-assets, including asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens. Additionally, it sets out requirements for offerors and entities seeking to admit other crypto-assets to trading that do not qualify as asset-referenced or e-money tokens. The regulation also estab - lishes rules for the provision of services related to crypto-assets. Portugal has not yet desig - nated the authority responsible for supervising, receiving and assessing applications for the authorisation of crypto-asset service providers. 6.3 Impact of the Emergence of Cryptocurrency Exchanges Regardless of their level of centralisation, crypto - currency exchanges must always secure a VASP licence from the Bank of Portugal to conduct their activities. A VASP licence focuses on the KYC and AML screening aspects of the fintech operator, in line with Portugal’s transposition of the 5th AML Directive (2018/843), as set forth by the AML Act. However, at the time of writ - ing of the present guide, one should be aware that since 30 December of 2024, the Bank of Portugal stopped licensing any VASP because the Portuguese Government failed to produce the domestic regulations needed to ensure its jurisdiction and competencies to supervise this sector. The emergence of cryptocurrency exchanges has not yet impacted current domestic regu - lations. Still, it has drawn the attention of Por - tuguese supervisors. CMVM determined that, depending on the characteristics and features of a given virtual asset, it may fall under the concept of a financial instrument and, therefore,
trading or issuance of such assets is under its supervision. 6.4 Listing Standards There are no specific listing requirements appli - cable to fintech companies. All trading plat - forms are required to have public, transparent, and non-discriminatory rules based on objective criteria that ensure the good functioning of the trading platform. The Portuguese Securities Code governs listing requirements in a Portuguese-regulated market, regulations and instructions approved by the CMVM, and Euronext’s Rule Books and Notices. The MiFID II rules also govern listing, the Pro - spectus Regulation (2017/1129/EU), the Market Abuse Regulation (596/2014/EU) and the Trans - parency Directive (2004/109/EC) (as amended). 6.5 Order Handling Rules MiFID II dictates order handling rules, and the CMVM imposes the “best execution” principle on any financial administrator. Orders should be executed at the moment indicated by the cli - ent. When the client has not provided specific instructions, the financial intermediary must try to obtain the best possible result for the client, attending to several criteria such as price, costs, speed, the likelihood of execution and liquida - tion, or another pre-established factor in the EU legislation. An intermediary will be required to inform the cli - ent beforehand of its execution policy, and any change in the execution of the orders must be communicated in advance. An intermediary may partially execute orders unless the client orders against it.
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