This professional began working in legal advice at the Madrid Stock Exchange and later specialized in the topic of financial regulation and advice to companies. Although at first finReg360's first clients were banks, securities firms or insurance companies, currently more and more clients from the crypto world are requesting its services, making it one of the leading firms in this sector.
Gloria Hernández explains how there is increasingly greater cooperation between traditional banking and exchanges, noting that regulators and supervisors “got their act together” when they began to see more relevant volumes in the cryptoasset business and when they paid attention to the Facebook project Libra, considering that such a project could affect financial stability if all users of these platforms began to use stablecoins instead of euros or dollars.
From here they begin to consider regulation more seriously, while at the same time traditional actors begin to pay more attention to this type of assets, thereby accelerating regulatory processes to be able to launch their own projects.
In this way, as Gloria Hernández explained in the Expert Session, the first point that began to be regulated at the international level was related to the prevention of money laundering and the financing of terrorism. To this end, a series of controls were established for these operations with European regulation, which states that “all exchanges or wallets that deal from FIAT money to crypto money or vice versa must become guardians that the origin of these crypto assets is legitimate.”
In Spain, it is necessary to be registered with the Bank of Spain to be able to provide the service of buying and selling cryptocurrencies or custody, and it is necessary to demonstrate to this institution that we have procedures for the prevention of money laundering. At this point, Gloria Hernández highlighted that Bit2Me, with the help of the specialized firm finReg360, is the first Exchange that has achieved both registrations with the Bank of Spain.
On the other hand, the second regulation in Spain, which Bit2Me also strictly complies with, has to do with the requirements that advertising must meet when talking about crypto assets. In addition, there is a third regulation that means that starting next year, not only profits, but also the possession of crypto assets must be declared, this regulation also being applicable to Spanish Exchanges, thus assimilating cryptos to any other asset. .
What is MICA, the new European regulation on cryptoassets?
MICA is a regulation that will be applied directly when approved in each member state without the need for transposition. This regulation is expected to be approved by the end of the year or early 2023. This regulation will regulate the requirements that cryptoasset service providers must meet beyond the prevention of money laundering (at the organizational level, procedures, etc. .), which will provide a lot of security when hiring this type of company. At this point, this regulation will regulate the requirements that cryptoasset service providers must meet: those who mediate, guard, advise, manage or carry out all types of management on cryptoassets.
In addition, it will also regulate how certain cryptoassets are issued: stablecoins, utility tokens, etc. taking into account what requirements the White Paper must contain, the type of entity that can issue these cryptoassets, etc.
On the other hand, what MICA does not regulate to date is the world of DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc., although a specific regulation for NFT and the updating of this regulation is proposed in which new technologies will be included.
This expert also explained that she considers that there is a genuine political will to place Europe at the forefront in issues such as Artificial Intelligence or the Metaverse, with MICA currently being a reference for the creation of regulations in other areas of the world, as well as highlighting the importance that there is an exchange of opinions between the crypto industry and regulators, promoting forums in which both parties can train.
Finally, he also added a call to regulators in Spain to maximize the attraction of talent in sectors such as the crypto ecosystem, including regulations that allow this sector to be efficiently welcomed and maximized, optimizing the creation of innovative companies in a completely disruptive industry. and with as much growth potential as the crypto sector.
