Preamble Recitals

In accordance with Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 it is necessary to establish standard forms, formats and templates for crypto-asset white papers so that they can be made available in a machine-readable format. Those templates should provide for data fields for the information to be included in the crypto-asset white papers in accordance with that Regulation.

To avoid duplication of requirements and reduce the compliance burden, where a valid legal entity identifier code is provided in the crypto-asset white paper, it should not be required for the crypto-asset white paper to contain the information that is retrievable from that legal entity identifier. That concerns the following information: legal form, registered address and head office (where different) and identity of the parent company of the issuer.

To ensure a unique and consistent identification of the crypto-asset service provider, a crypto-asset service provider identifier is necessary in addition to the name of crypto-asset service provider. To obtain authorisation as a crypto-asset service provider, a legal entity identifier is required in accordance with Article 62(2), point (a), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114. Therefore, for the identification of crypto asset service providers, its legal entity identifier should be provided.

To avoid duplication of requirements and reduce the compliance burden, where a valid Digital Token Identifier is provided in the crypto-asset white paper, it should not be required for the crypto-asset white paper to contain data that is retrievable from the Digital Token Identifier Foundation Registry. That concerns the following information: crypto-asset’s name and abbreviation, commercial name or trading name of the issuer, and distributed ledger technology.

To further facilitate the analysis and comparability of the crypto-asset white papers, they should be marked up using eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL). XBRL is a machine-readable format which allows for the automated consumption of large amount of information. It is well established and in use in a number of jurisdictions.

To ensure the protection of retail investors, crypto-asset white papers should be human readable and easily accessible without specialised software. The use of Inline XBRL technology for embedding XBRL markups in XHTML documents enables such documents to be at the same time machine-readable and human readable.

The use of XBRL requires the development of a taxonomy. To achieve a harmonised approach to the use of XBRL, the elements of the taxonomy to be used for the crypto-asset white papers should be exclusively the fields included in the standardised templates.

The taxonomy for the use of XBRL is accessed in the form of XBRL files (‘XBRL taxonomy files’), which provide a structured representation of the fields to be reported. The fields and their appropriate data type should be made available in a simple human-readable form. It is important that persons drawing up a crypto-asset white paper use XBRL taxonomy files that comply with all applicable technical and legal requirements. To facilitate compliance and to enhance transparency, the European Securities and Markets Authority (‘ESMA’) should publish the XBRL taxonomy files on its website in a machine-readable and freely downloadable format.

To allow time to adapt to the requirements related to the preparation of the white paper in the machine-readable format, it is necessary to defer the date of application of this Regulation by 12 months. Persons drawing up the white papers should be required to publish the relevant white papers on their websites in separate sections titled ‘white papers’ in accordance with the requirements laid down respectively in Articles 6, 19 and 51 of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 and in Annexes I, II and III to that Regulation from the date of entry into application of the relevant provisions set out in Regulation (EU) 2023/1114.

This Regulation is based on the draft implementing technical standards, developed by ESMA in cooperation with the European Banking Authority, submitted to the Commission by ESMA.

ESMA has conducted open public consultations on the draft implementing technical standards on which this Regulation is based, analysed the potential related costs and benefits and requested the advice of the Securities and Markets Stakeholder Group established in accordance with Article 37(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1095/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council(²)Regulation (EU) No 1095/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010 establishing a European Supervisory Authority (European Securities and Markets Authority), amending Decision No 716/2009/EC and repealing Commission Decision 2009/77/EC (OJ L 331, 15.12.2010, p. 84, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2010/1095/oj).,