Malta, a country that was one of the few to include NFTs in its virtual asset law, is withdrawing its inclusion of non-fungible tokens for the European Union crypto legislation.
The Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) established the regulatory framework for Virtual Financial Assets (VFAs) in 2018, according to which, service providers could introduce digital tokens after receiving a license.
“The inclusion of such assets within the scope of the VFA framework may run counter to the spirit of the Act…” MFSA said, referring to the EU’s policy.
The authorities are basically looking through its existing framework to accommodate the upcoming EU legislation, which doesn’t include the regulatory approval for NFTs as of now.
Although the removal hasn’t been finalized yet, the authorities are still looking into the issue along with its stakeholders to come up with the best strategy with its new policy that accommodates both the EU’s law and its Own law as well.
There might be many NFT providers still working under the regulatory law in Malta such as HIVE Information Systems, Incredible Web Ltd, Vioside, and more. If the authorities decide to remove non-fungible tokens, how will the regulators cater to them or will they be forced to leave the country and establish somewhere else?
This is a problem that MFSA might be pondering over to solve.
