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9 EDITORIAL BusinessToday is published every Thursday. The newspaper is a MediaToday publication and is distributed to all leading stationers, business and financial institutions and banks. MANAGING EDITOR: SAVIOUR BALZAN EDITOR: PAUL COCKS BusinessToday, MediaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN9016, Malta Newsroom email: bt@mediatoday.com.mt Advertising: afarrugia@mediatoday.com.mt Telephone: 00356 21 382741 23.11.2023 T he world of crypto faced massive tur- bulence over the past 12 months with the spectacular failure of FTX, a cryp- tocurrency exchange which became one of the largest in the world. FTX declared bankruptcy and billions in deposits were lost, leaving investors high and dry. Eventually, FTX's founder Sam Bankman-Fried was charged with fraud and earlier this year he was convicted. Crypto prices have only partially recov- ered from the shock but the scene has anything but stabilised with this week's developments concerning Binance chief executive, Changpeng Zhao. He resigned his post after pleading guilty to money laundering violations after the company was charged in the US with helping users bypass sanctions across the world. Binance, the largest crypto-exchange in the world, will now have to pay $4.3bn in penalties and forfeitures. The company was charged with enabling nearly $900 million in transactions be- tween US and Iranian users, and facilitat- ed millions of dollars in transactions be- tween US users and users in Syria, and in the Russian occupied Ukrainian regions of Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk. The two distinct cases have shocked the crypto world but also underscored the ur- gency of introducing controls on this new sector. Crypto assets are here to stay but over the coming years we can expect greater interventions by the regulatory authori- ties to prevent the law of the jungle from prevailing. Malta is currently in the process of transposing the EU regulation on markets in crypto assets, known as MiCA, into na- tional legislation. The transition is expected to be a smooth affair since much of MiCA is modelled on Malta's very own Virtual Financial Assets Act that was introduced in 2018. The law established a regulatory frame- work for ICOs, cryptocurrency exchang- es and wallet providers. It is now being fine-tuned with recommendations from supranational authorities to ensure its ef- fectiveness. Malta had managed to attract some 180 participants at the time when there was no licensing regime in place. The moment licensing was introduced, only 30 showed interest and eventually only 11 companies were authorised. The focus today is one on quality rather than quantity. Malta Financial Services Authority CEO Kenneth Farrugia told sister newspaper MaltaToday that regulators in Malta have learned a lot from the whole process. There will always be significant risks associated with crypto investments not least those linked to cyber security, fraud and the lack of safeguards for clients. But the new regulatory regime intends to minimise these risks. Within this context, it becomes imper- ative that regulatory authorities like the MFSA and the FIAU not only have trained personnel but also adequate technical re- sources and systems. In a virtual environ- ment, technical resources are required to evaluate trends and typologies that allow the authorities to keep track and take ac- tion if need be. But it remains imperative that nation- al authorities and supranational bodies cooperate between themselves given the cross-border transactions facilitated by crypto platforms. The International Monetary Fund has called for a global response that is coor- dinated, consistent and comprehensive. Coordination is necessary to fill the reg- ulatory gaps that arise from cross-sector and cross-border issuance and ensure a level playing field. Consistency is need- ed to align crypto asset regulation with mainstream regulatory approaches. And regulation must be comprehensive so that it covers all actors and all aspects of the crypto ecosystem, including miners, val- idators and protocol developers that are not easily covered by traditional financial regulation. Proper and effective crypto regulation will bring order to the markets, instil consumer confidence, determine what is permissible and provide a space for inno- vation to grow. Bringing order to crypto's wild west n August 2023, the seasonally adjusted volume of retail trade decreased by 1.2% in the euro area and by 0.9% in the EU, compared with July 2023, according to estimates from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. In July 2023, the retail trade volume decreased by 0.1% both in the euro area and in the EU. In August 2023 compared with August 2022, the calendar adjusted retail sales index decreased by 2.1% in the euro area and by 2.0% in the EU. In the euro area in August 2023, compared with July 2023, the volume of retail trade decreased by 3.0% for automotive fuels, by 1.2% for food, drinks and tobacco and by 0.9% for non-food products. In the EU, the volume of retail trade decreased by 2.4% for automotive fuels, by 0.9% for food, drinks and tobacco and by 0.6% for non-food products. Retail Price Volume DID U KNOW?

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