Crypto-assets and MiFID II

MiCA governs crypto-assets; MiFID II and fund law govern financial instruments. A CASP adding financial services, a bank opening its services to crypto-assets or a promoter tokenising a money market fund must each know which status covers the project. ORWL Avocats, a Paris law firm, helps you choose the most direct route and represents you before the French regulators.

Which status for which project?

Where you start matters as much as what you plan. An institution already authorised has access, for some crypto-asset services, to a notification procedure that MiCA reserves for financial entities. A CASP has no shortcut to investment services: it needs an authorisation or an authorised partner. A token that represents a fund unit remains a fund unit, governed by fund law.

How can a CASP offer financial services?

Clients of crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) ask for products that MiCA does not cover: leveraged derivatives, money market fund units, tokenised securities. A CASP authorisation does not allow a provider to offer them, because they are financial instruments and the services built on them are investment services. A CASP has three routes:

• apply for authorisation as an investment firm, granted in France by the ACPR (Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution, the French banking and insurance supervisor) once the AMF (Autorité des marchés financiers, the French financial markets regulator) has approved the programme of operations; the CASP then holds two statuses whose rules must be reconciled;
• become a tied agent of an investment firm, to receive and transmit orders, place financial instruments or give advice on that firm’s behalf and under its responsibility;
• enter into a distribution partnership with an authorised institution that provides the service itself, the contract setting out what the CASP may say and do with its clients.

Derivatives call for particular care. A CFD or a perpetual contract on bitcoin remains a financial contract: marketing it requires investment firm status and is subject to the restrictions on leveraged products, which the firm details in its article Un CFD sur cryptomonnaies reste un CFD (in French).

ORWL Avocats helps the CASP choose its route, apply for authorisation and draft partnership agreements, then reconcile its obligations under MiCA and MiFID II. The firm also advises crypto-asset service providers throughout their regulatory life.

How can banks, investment firms and asset managers provide crypto-asset services?

MiCA gives financial entities that are already authorised a shorter route than CASP authorisation: notification. A credit institution, an investment firm, an electronic money institution (EMI), a UCITS management company or alternative investment fund manager (AIFM), a market operator or a central securities depository (CSD) may provide the crypto-asset services its status covers, after notifying the competent authority of its home Member State at least 40 working days before starting.

For entities authorised in France, credit institutions, investment firms and EMIs notify the ACPR, which obtains the AMF’s opinion; asset management companies, market operators and CSDs notify the AMF (Article L. 54-10-7 of the French Monetary and Financial Code, in French). The file contains most of the items of an application for authorisation, and the notifying entity becomes a CASP subject to MiCA, except for the rules on authorisation, own funds and shareholders.

For a service its status does not cover, the institution may apply for CASP authorisation or place the activity in an authorised subsidiary. ORWL Avocats handles MiCA Article 60 notifications, from the equivalence analysis to ongoing compliance.

Tokenised money market funds: which regime?

Asset managers now record money market fund units on blockchains. On 19 March 2026, Amundi and Spiko announced SAFO (in French), a tokenised fund designed for treasury management.

The token does not change the nature of the unit. The fund remains a money market fund, managed by an authorised management company, with its assets held by a depositary. Its units may be recorded in a DEEP (dispositif d’enregistrement électronique partagé, the French shared electronic ledger regime) and circulate as tokens; fund law governs its creation, management and marketing, and MiCA does not apply.

For a CASP or a payment institution, these units give clients a money market return that a stablecoin cannot offer: MiCA prohibits both the issuer of an e-money token and CASPs from granting interest on it. Distributing these units still requires a suitable status or partnership.

ORWL Avocats advises promoters and management companies on structuring the tokenised fund, and distributors on their choice of status. The firm also advises on tokenising other real-world assets.

Crypto-asset or financial instrument: where to start?

Every project starts with the classification of the token. MiCA excludes financial instruments from its scope; a token that confers no financial right falls under MiCA, even when it circulates between finance professionals. The analysis looks at the rights the token confers, whatever its form.

The firm issues legal opinions on token classification under MiCA, which platforms, banking partners and regulators ask for. ESMA’s guidelines on classification and the other MiCA implementing texts are listed in the firm’s MiCA tracker.

How ORWL Avocats supports you

Each engagement follows the same sequence, adapted to the client’s starting point:

• classification of each service and each token under MiCA and MiFID II;
• choice of route: notification, authorisation, extension of authorisation, partnership or subsidiary;
• the file, then exchanges with the AMF and the ACPR until the decision or the first service;
• ongoing compliance, with distribution agreements and the reconciliation of both sets of rules.

Why work with ORWL Avocats?

Since 2018, ORWL Avocats has handled dozens of authorisations before the AMF and the ACPR, first under the French PSAN regime (the registration regime for digital asset service providers that applied before MiCA), then under MiCA, for platforms, custodians, brokers, fintechs adding crypto-asset services and financial groups notifying their services. The firm is ranked by Chambers FinTech and Leaders League. It takes part in industry work within ADAN (Association pour le développement des actifs numériques, the French digital asset industry association), on whose board one of its partners sits.

A lawyer specialised in banking and financial law applied to crypto-asset services brings what a consultant cannot: a legal classification of each service, backed by professional liability; professional secrecy, which protects exchanges and analyses; the drafting of partnership and distribution agreements; a position defended before the regulator on the client’s behalf.

Every matter is handled by a partner.