20 January 2026

One Year After Our First EU White Paper Retrospective Lessons from the Field

  • Articles
  • Compliance
  • Legal
  • Blockchain / Digital Assets
  • Regulatory Compliance

Since the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (“MiCAR”) came into force on 30 December 2024, any crypto-asset offered or admitted to trading in the European Union requires a white paper. Although the concept is not entirely new - practitioners from traditional finance were already familiar with the prospectus regime - the MiCA white paper has revealed its own specific features, which the market has progressively made its own. After thirty+ white papers notified across different jurisdictions, we may share a first set of key lessons and practical insights.

  • Dr. Andreas Glarner

    Legal Partner

  • Anne-Lorinne Mognetti

    Senior Legal Associate

Lesson 1: Thirty Flavours of MiCAR

Know Your Jurisdiction - Mapping MiCAR’s national nuances proved critical to delivering relevant client advice. 

By choosing a regulation rather than a directive, the ambition was crystal clear: create a single, harmonized market for crypto assets. While this was undeniably the only viable policy choice, the extent to which national regulators had developed their own supervisory practice around blockchain technology had clearly been underestimated. As a result, each authority has effectively shaped its own “flavour” of MiCAR - some highly attractive, others more restrictive - which has naturally fuelled forum shopping. This fragmentation has led some European regulators to call for further centralisation[1]. While such an approach may seem appealing as a quick way to restore harmony and legal certainty in a competitive environment, one may reasonably question whether centralisation is truly the right way forward. Even putting aside its administrative and cost implications, one could argue that the EU may instead choose to allow - or even encourage - certain Member States to become crypto-asset champions. After all, not all EU Member States are major financial hubs, so why should it be any different for crypto-assets?

Lesson 2: Multiple White Papers 

Own Your Story - Core contributors remain the best to describe their ecosystem.  

 To avoid situations where no white paper would be drafted due to automated or decentralised minting of the crypto-asset, the regulation allows persons different from the issuer of a crypto-asset to draft the white paper. This flexibility has led to an interesting use case: core contributors are seeking advice in cases where a third party has already taken the initiative to draft a MiCAR white paper, which usually displays a weak qualification analysis or an inadequate description of the protocol and/or platform. In such cases, the only realistic option is to produce a competing white paper. Although the third party remains legally responsible for the content of the published white papers, this hardly serves the purpose of customer protection if the content can vary significantly from one source to another - especially when all white paper authors are deemed equally legitimate from a legal standpoint.

Lesson 3: Safeguarding of the Funds

Check All Your Obligations - The white paper is one among many other obligations.

Drafting the white paper is the visible part of the EU offering iceberg. MiCAR embeds customer-protection rules by introducing a fourteen-day withdrawal right and by requiring that any funds received in the context of an offer must be safeguarded with an authorized CASP authorised or with a credit institution. As these two obligations require contractual arrangements, they must be integrated into the overall offer timeline in order to meet the project’s operational needs. 

Lesson 4: No Published White Paper, No Marketing Communications 

Master Your Timeline - The white paper process is not a simple administrative formality. It determines the entire timing of your offering or admission to trading. 

The publication of the white paper is the central anchor point in the timeline of an offer or admission to trading. The operations can only begin once the white paper is published. Practically, this calls for retro-planning: starting from the target offer or admission-to-trading date, the marketing window determines the date on which the white paper must be published, which, in turn, determines the latest date by which it must be notified to the regulator in order to comply with the minimum twenty-working-day period. MiCAR must then be factored in early by any project targeting the EU, so that key milestones are not postponed. 

Lesson 5: Environmental Disclosure Challenges 

Evaluate Your Electricity Production - Whether you are puzzled, confused or thrilled by this requirement does not matter, you need to do the maths! 

It usually comes as the cherry on the cake during the preparation of the white paper. The energy-consumption disclosure always triggers surprise and a lot of questions. That is precisely why we explain everything in a separate article dedicated to this specific point.

Conclusion 

2025 has been a year of construction for the MME MiCA Desk, focused on delivering practical solutions to help clients navigate this new framework. The constructive dialogue with regulators has been invaluable - and will remain key as jurisdictional competition now clearly emerges.

Our MiCA Desk provides comprehensive support on all MiCAR‑related compliance matters. Should you need any assistance, the MME MiCA Desk will be delighted to help.

[1] https://www.amf-france.org/fr/actualites-publications/positions-ue-de-lamf/encadrement-des-marches-europeens-de-crypto-actifs-propositions-des-autorites-des-marches-financiers

 

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