Article 8 Notification of the crypto-asset white paper and of the marketing communications

Summary What does Article 8 of the MiCA regulation say?

Article 8 sets out the notification process that offerors, persons seeking admission to trading, and trading platform operators must follow when submitting their crypto-asset white paper to regulators.

It acts as the procedural counterpart to Article 6, which governs the content of the white paper, and Article 9, which governs its publication.

A key point of note is that while notification is mandatory, competent authorities are explicitly prohibited from requiring prior approval of either the white paper or related marketing communications before publication.

The article also establishes a chain of information-sharing between the home Member State authority, host Member State authorities, and ESMA, ensuring cross-border visibility before an offer or admission to trading begins.

Important points:

Notify your crypto-asset white paper to the competent authority of your home Member State at least 20 working days before the intended publication date, accompanied by an explanation of why the crypto-asset does not fall under an excluded category.
Competent authorities are prohibited from requiring prior approval of white papers or related marketing communications before publication.
The home Member State competent authority is required to pass the white paper and related information on to host Member State authorities and ESMA within defined timeframes, enabling ESMA to make the white paper available in its register by the starting date of the offer or admission to trading.

Springlex's summary of the article, a reading aid, not a substitute for the legal text.

1. Offerors, persons seeking admission to trading, or operators of trading platforms for crypto-assets other than asset-referenced tokens or e-money tokens shall notify their crypto-asset white paper to the competent authority of their home Member State.
1. Marketing communications shall, upon request, be notified to the competent authority of the home Member State and to the competent authority of the host Member State, when addressing prospective holders of crypto-assets other than asset-referenced tokens or e-money tokens in those Member States.
1. Competent authorities shall not require prior approval of crypto-asset white papers, nor of any marketing communications relating thereto, before their respective publication.
1. The notification of the crypto-asset white paper referred to in paragraph 1 shall be accompanied by an explanation of why the crypto-asset described in the crypto-asset white paper should not be considered to be:
  1. a crypto-asset excluded from the scope of this Regulation pursuant to Article 2(4);
  2. an e-money token; or
  3. an asset-referenced token.
1. The elements referred in paragraphs 1 and 4 shall be notified to the competent authority of the home Member State at least 20 working days before the date of publication of the crypto-asset white paper.
1. Offerors and persons seeking admission to trading of crypto-assets other than asset-referenced tokens or e-money tokens shall, together with the notification referred to in paragraph 1, provide the competent authority of their home Member State with a list of the host Member States, if any, where they intend to offer their crypto-assets to the public or intend to seek admission to trading. They shall also inform the competent authority of their home Member State of the starting date of the intended offer to the public or intended admission to trading and of any change to that date.
2. The competent authority of the home Member State shall notify the single point of contact of the host Member States of the intended offer to the public or the intended admission to trading and communicate to that single point of contact the corresponding crypto-asset white paper within five working days of receipt of the list of host Member States referred to in the first subparagraph.
1. The competent authority of the home Member State shall communicate to ESMA the information referred to in paragraphs 1, 2 and 4 as well as the starting date of the intended offer to the public or intended admission to trading and of any change to that date. It shall communicate such information within five working days of receipt thereof from the offeror or the person seeking admission to trading.
2. ESMA shall make the crypto-asset white paper available in the register, under Article 109(2), by the starting date of the offer to the public or admission to trading.

Table of contents

Springlex and this text is meant purely as a documentation tool and has no legal effect. No liability is assumed for its content. The authentic version of this act is the one published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Relevant recitals