NFT sites in Malta may be left without regulatory oversight

Representatives of the Malta Financial Services Authority announced the consideration of the issue regarding the exclusion of NFT sites from the list of cryptocurrency businesses, which will be under the supervision of regulators. The announcement of such an event appeared in a consultation paper of the Malta Financial Services Authority.

So far, this issue is under consideration, and therefore the idea of excluding NFT marketplaces from the list of cryptocurrency assets that will fall under regulation may ultimately not be realized. Consideration of the issue will last, according to expectations, until January 6, 2023, and therefore at the beginning of 2023 we will already be able to find out the appropriate decision.

The Malta Financial Services Authority emphasizes that NFT collections have one unique feature. All tokens are unique and non-fungible, which in some way may restrict their use for investment purposes or as a payment system.

Thus, according to the financial regulator, NFT tokens are fundamentally different from conventional cryptocurrency assets, and regulators believe that marketplaces with non-fungible tokens can be released from regulation.

The financial regulator of Malta also notes that the framework to improve regulation for the countries of the European Union called Markets in Crypto-assets Regulation covers many aspects, but not NFT tokens. The introduction of new rules for the cryptocurrency industry in the European Union is expected in the spring of 2023. Exact dates have not yet been named.

The distinction between NFT tokens and the classical activity of cryptocurrency assets is not supported by all figures in the technical industry, whether they are associated with the world of cryptocurrencies or not. For example, Apple has a rather harsh stance on commissions in their stores and believes that taxes of 30% should be paid on almost everything that is there, even if it is NFT tokens.

Earlier, because of this, representatives of the Coinbase cryptocurrency platform were under attack, who were then forced to stop development in the direction of non-fungible tokens on the Apple market. They also added that there is a lack of understanding of the work of the NFT tokens sphere on the part of App Store owners, since it is technically impossible to implement a 30% commission with Coinbase Wallet. The reason for this is the company's lack of support for cryptocurrencies so that deductions from them can be sent to Apple.

It is noteworthy that due to such a policy on the part of the App Store, many developers are already starting to protest and threaten to withdraw their applications from the Apple site. So, for example, one of the founders of MetaMask, Dan Finlay, said that if Apple does not remove its conditions, which are “monopoly abuse”, then Metamask will remove their application from the App Store. In addition, Finlay urged developers to resist Apple's monopolistic habits by using a third-party service that can relay on-chain transactions for an upfront fee.

The founder of Metamask believes that if developers would unite and work together in this direction, then cryptocurrency applications could become free for owners of smartphones running iOS. This could allow users of crypto-currency applications to conduct various transactions, avoiding fees and hitting the wallet of Apple, who are too worried about their funds.