In 2017, the term ‘blockchain island’ was synonymous with Malta and made the global rounds. Today, it only brings back bad memories and misconceptions. Granted, the term was unfortunate and egregious. It misled the blockchain community to believe that Malta was a haven and set off alarm bells among crypto sceptics, sowing suspicions that Malta was becoming a port of call for money launderers and fraudsters. The truth is that none of this was based on fact. On the contrary, just as with online gambling 20 years ago, the intention was to create a balanced regulatory framework protecting consumers and giving serious operators the room to grow and prosper. Have we managed to do that? Not quite. But in a way, we did. In fact, in 2024, the EU will introduce a new legal framework for crypto assets that looks like a twin of the Maltese one. They didn’t try to copy us. Yet whoever drafted the Maltese law was lucky or indeed smart enough to choose the right model, the traditional EU framework for financial services. The bottom line is that in two years’ time Europe will adopt something almost identical to the Maltese VFA framework. Indeed ours is stricter. In the meantime, some of the...
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