Art. 13 Operating rules of the trading platform and market abuse detection | RTS on CASP authorisation | MiCA

This article is specifically directed at applicants seeking authorisation to operate a trading platform for crypto-assets, and it sets out the detailed information they must submit to the competent authority as part of their application.

Building on the general authorisation framework established under Article 62(2) of MiCA, this article drills down into the operational specifics of running a trading platform, covering everything from how crypto-assets are admitted to trading, to how transactions are settled, how prices are made public, and how market abuse is detected and prevented.

Applicants must also hand over a copy of their platform's operating rules.

Important points:

If you intend to operate a trading platform for crypto-assets, submit a comprehensive information package to the competent authority covering admission rules, order execution, fee structures, settlement arrangements, and market abuse prevention.
Provide a full account of your settlement process, including whether final settlement occurs on or off the distributed ledger, the timeframes involved, and the measures in place to limit settlement fails.
Submit a copy of the trading platform's operating rules and the procedures and systems in place to detect and prevent market abuse, including how possible cases will be communicated to the competent authority.

1. For the purposes of Article 62(2), point (n), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114, applicants that intend to operate a trading platform for crypto-assets shall provide to the competent authority all of the following information:
  1. the rules on the admission of crypto-assets to trading;
  2. the approval process for admitting crypto-assets to trading, including the customer due diligence carried out in accordance with Directive (EU) 2015/849;
  3. the list of any categories of crypto-assets that will not be admitted to trading and the reasons for such exclusion;
  4. the policies, procedures and fees for the admission to trading, together with a description, where relevant, of membership, rebates and the related conditions;
  5. the rules governing order execution, including any cancellation procedures for executed orders and for disclosing such information to market participants;
  6. the policies, procedures and methods put in place to assess the suitability of crypto-assets in accordance with Article 76(2) of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114;
  7. the systems, procedures and arrangement put in place to comply with Article 76(7), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114;
  8. the manner of making public any bid and ask prices, the depth of trading interests at those prices that are advertised for crypto-assets through their trading platforms and price, volume and time of transactions executed in respect of crypto-assets traded on their trading platform, in accordance with Article 76(9) and (10) of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114;
  9. the fee structures and a justification of how those fee structures comply with Article 76(13) of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114;
  10. the systems, procedures and arrangements put in place to keep data relating to all orders at the disposal of the competent authority or the mechanism to ensure that the competent authority has access to the order book and any other trading system;
  11. with regards to the settlement of transactions:
    whether the final settlement of transactions is initiated on the distributed ledger or outside the distributed ledger;
    the timeframe within which the final settlement of crypto-asset transactions is initiated;
    the way to verify the availability of funds and crypto-assets;
    the way to confirm the relevant details of transactions;
    the measures foreseen to limit settlement fails;
    the moment at which settlement is final and the moment at which final settlement is initiated following the execution of the transaction;
  12. the policies, procedures and systems put in place to detect and prevent market abuse, including information on the communications to the competent authority of possible market abuse cases.
1. Applicants that intend to operate a trading platform for crypto-assets shall provide to the competent authority a copy of the operating rules of the trading platform and of any procedures and systems to detect and prevent market abuse.