• Crypto entities may have misinterpreted MiCa's deadline to make sustainability disclosures, despite a clarification, according to Crypto Risk Metrics.

• Crypto's environmental impact, particularly through mining operations, has been a major concern surrounding the industry.

Several crypto asset service providers (CASPS) in the European Union (EU) may not know the correct deadline to make sustainability disclosures reflecting their environmental footprint despite a clarification made by the bloc's securities regulator, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).

In general “we have the feeling that more than 80% of crypto asset service providers are not yet aware they need to report ESG-data (environmental, social and governance-related data) from January 1st, 2025," said Tim Zölitz, chief risk officer at Crypto Risk Metrics.

On Wednesday, Zölitz's Crypto Risk Metrics inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on displaying ESG-related data with The Digital Token Identifier (DTI) Foundation, the EU's proposed crypto-asset identifier for transparency reporting.

The EU's crypto asset regulation, known as Markets in Crypto Assets regulation (MiCA), became a law in 2023. MiCA set up licensing requirements for crypto issuers and service providers including exchange platforms. Stablecoin rules came into effect in June.

However, issuers of asset-referenced tokens (ARTs) and electronic money tokens (EMTs) are required to make sustainability disclosures from June 30, 2024, and crypto asset service providers are required to start making disclosure requirements by the end of the year, explained Rowan Varrall, Associate Director at DTI Foundation.

Part of the rules are the reporting requirements for ESG-data. The confusion around the correct deadline may be a matter of interpretation, even though a specific clarification has been made by the regulator.

The adopted MiCa law said that any adverse impacts on the environment need to be adequately identified and disclosed. But it also said that "That information may be obtained from the crypto-asset white papers.”

This may have been interpreted as requiring disclosures only when the white paper is published, the timeline for which is end-2027. "This might stem from the wording in the adopted MiCA regulation text, which was later clarified in the consultation paper number two," Zölitz from Crypto Risk Metrics said.

MiCA's "disclosure requirements" related to "environment-related adverse impacts of the consensus mechanism used to issue the crypto-asset, as part of the white papers....," said that "These disclosure requirements apply to persons drawing up the crypto-asset white paper..." and that "operators of trading platforms shall ensure by 31 December 2027 that a crypto-asset white paper is drawn up, notified, and published...."

In the second of three consultation papers, which in effect refine the understanding of the MiCA law, ESMA added that crypto entities need to make such "information available in a prominent place on their website for all the crypto-assets in relation to which they provide services, regardless of whether the information can be obtained from white-papers."

"Here, the wording does not leave any room for interpretation, as it reads that Crypto Asset Service Providers have to display ESG-data, regardless if they can be obtained from white-papers," Zölitz said.

Crypto's environmental impact, particularly through mining operations, has been a major concern surrounding the industry, potentially deterring general adoption and involvement of big institutional investors.

ESMA didn't immediately respond to a CoinDesk request for comment.

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