With several governments shifting their focus towards adopting blockchain technology into their various sectors, the Maltese government, being a notable supporter of blockchain technology has introduced specific digital assets laws which are expected to take effect by November this year.
The Maltese Government is Supportive of Blockchain Technology
Following the supportive nature of the Maltese government toward blockchain technology, Several top-ranking blockchain innovations, especially those originally from China and Japan, have moved their shops to Malta in recent months. Some good examples are Cryptocurrency exchanges: Binance, ZB, Bitbay.
The co-founder of ZB exchange Jimmy Zhao states that:
“Malta is perhaps the world’s most progressive and forward-thinking nation in DLT, crypto and fintech, and we are very excited to be part of the Blockchain Island. We are confident we will be able to announce our live operations soon,”
Malta has proven itself to be very supportive of the cryptocurrency ecosystem and it keeps showing this support through passing many favourable regulations aimed at encouraging legitimate Crypto projects.
The country has made announcements that it is in process of developing digital asset laws that are specific and leaves no room for confusion. Although Malta is well known to support the growth of the blockchain industry, the country’s laws targeted at the industry are not specific enough.
The introduction of the law by November this year will help to put regulations and a framework in place for the industry.
The Laws to be Introduced
As a result of this, by November 2018, the Innovative Technology Arrangement and Services Act (ITAS) and the Virtual Financial Assets Act (VFA) is expected to both become law in the country.
The ITAS law is targeted at putting the foundation of regulation for blockchain and cryptocurrency firmly into place for the island. The VFA law, on the other hand, will be targeted at establishing requirements and policies for ICOs, with focused mainly on the disclosure of financial history behind an ICO.