Our client, TWINO Investments, has successfully obtained an authorisation to provide crypto asset services under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA).
TWINO was among the first Latvian fintech companies to introduce innovative investment services and is now taking a significant step forward by expanding into regulated crypto-asset services.
To enable this expansion, TWINO completed the MiCA notification process available to certain existing regulated financial market participants. As an investment firm, TWINO was able to rely on the MiCA notification regime which allows certain regulated entities to expand their activities into crypto-asset services on the basis of their existing regulatory status, subject to fulfilment of all applicable MiCA requirements. This approach reflects the EU legislator’s recognition that licensed investment firms are already subject to extensive prudential, governance, conduct and organizational requirements under the financial services regulatory framework.
It is important to emphasize that the service provision notification process does not lower the substantive compliance bar. The entity must ensure full compliance with MiCA, including the requirements applicable to the specific crypto-asset services to be provided. This includes compliance with the standards set by the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) in the areas of ICT risk management and business continuity, as well as comprehensive anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism and counter-proliferation financing (AML/CTPF) requirements.
These compliance requirements formed an integral part of the notification process and required the review and adaptation of TWINO’s existing policies and procedures to the provision of crypto-asset services.
TWINO is the sixth entity to obtain the right to provide crypto-asset services under the MiCA Regulation in Latvia, one of the first to add MiCA authorizations to its MiFID II authorizations, and the first existing market participant in Latvia to complete the MiCA service provision notification process.
Our team and involvement
We advised TWINO throughout the process of extending its regulated activities to crypto-asset services under the MiCA notification procedure. Our assistance covered the full scope of legal advice, from business plan review and service structuring to development of the notification package (including MiCA, DORA and AML/CTPF documents).
Given the novelty of the MiCA notification process in Latvia, the project required careful legal and regulatory analysis, adaptation of existing investment firm documentation to the crypto-asset services framework, and close engagement with the Latvian regulator, the Bank of Latvia.
Our team was led by counsel Santa Rubīna as project manager and partner Ramona Miglāne, and included senior associates Agneta Rumpa, Jevgēnija Ziņģe, Edvīns Draba, and assistant lawyers Annika Līze Valtere, Annija Kuzma and Evija Velvele.
