On June 9, 2023, the following was published in the gazette. MiCA European regulation on cryptoassets, which will take effect in 2024 and marks an important evolution: after regulating cryptocurrencies, it is now time for cryptoassets and the new opportunities that the asset tokenization brings with it.
Cryptoassets are evolutions of virtual currencies, which were created to support the efficiency of the blockchain platform to which they are connected and only secondarily are a means of payment.
The first transaction made with bitcoin contained a message, as if it were a causal: from the ability to write something into the structure of the telematics code that allows the bitcoin to be sent the phenomenon of tokenization is born, because some developers tried to hook into this possibility a system for attaching additional meanings to these transactions via a computer code. A cryptographic fingerprint transferred peer-to-peer that allowed the Transfer not only money, but also rights. Early attempts did not work because the process burdened the system too much, until Ethereum made possible the smart contract, which can also be used to create tokens-a way of circulating goods, services and rights in an innovative way.
A token, in fact, represents the possibility of exercising a right against the issuer or a predetermined party. It can be compared to a "voucher" that allows one to exercise a right to purchase, participate, etc.
Today it is finally possible for the tokenization of financial assets. For LLCs this introduces the possibility of dematerialization of shares. Shares of LLCs have a very strong personalistic meaning, they are closely linked to those who own them, so they are an illiquid investment: with tokenization it becomes possible a secondary market for ltd shares. For startups, this means that they become more attractive from an investment perspective, even for small investors.
To stop the wave of scams related to the first experiments in asset tokenization (tokens related to services and companies that did not yet exist, which turned out to be scams), European authorities placed limits and imposed the application of the same rules as financial instruments (MiFID) also to cryptoassets that are assimilated to them (e.g., company shares).
One can then speak of the "mifidization" of the token industry with the entry into force of the MiCA regulation for cryptoasset representing hybrid financial instruments that do not fall under existing rules but still constitute a solicitation of investment: for example utility tokens or asset-referenced tokens.
At the same time, the legislature provided a DLT system for the sale of tokenized financial instruments to the public on a regulated platform, which can also be a crowdfunding platform. Products that until yesterday could not be offered to the public on their own because it was illegal as a solicitation of public savings, can now be offered to the retail public in the form of tokens through authorized intermediaries, moreover throughout Europe, a huge market.
Other benefits of tokenization can be inferred from the example of real estate: the tokenization of real estate makes it possible to purchase even small capital shares of real estate, without having to invest a large capital in a single property and being able to liquidate the investment easily if needed.
WEBINAR TOPICS
0:00 Introduction
1:28 Difference between cryptoassets and cryptocurrencies
6:44 First attempts at tokenization
10:15 What are smart contracts
11:20 What a token represents
16:45 Business implications of tokenization
22:28 The critical issues of cryptoasset exchange on exchanges
26:00 The Mica regulation for cryptoassets
28:00 The possibility of exchanging tokens on crowdfunding platforms
35:50 The tokenization of real estate
40:57 Tokenization and SRL
46:00 The competitive advantage given by tokenization
51:30 The cryptoasset user market
SPEAKERS
Claudio Grimoldi, Founder of Turbo Crowd
Alessandro Immobile, CEO of Imment
Niccolò Travia, lawyer and Co-founder of BlockchainEdu
