Cap. 647 Art. 37Powers of the Minister.

(1) The Minister, acting on the advice of the competent authority, may make regulations to give effect to the provisions of this Act, and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing may, by such regulations, in particular, do any of the following:

(a) provide for and regulate the payment by any person or body, as the case may be, of authorisation or other fees and such other charges payable to the competent authority in respect of any matter provided for, by or under the MiCA Regulation, this Act and any regulations made, and Rules issued thereunder, including the fees and charges in respect of any permission, licence, authorisation, exemption or other benefit, as well as any fees and charges in respect of the competent authority’s regulatory, supervisory or investigative functions under the MiCA Regulation, this Act and any regulations made, and Rules issued thereunder, as may be prescribed;

(b) exempt any person, service or activity from any one or more of the provisions of the MiCA Regulation and, or this Act, subject to such variations, additions, adaptations and modifications as may be prescribed and subject to such conditions or other requirements, including other forms of authorisation and notification procedures, as may be prescribed;

(c) transpose, implement and give effect to the provisions and requirements of the MiCA Regulation;

(d) transpose, implement and give effect to the provisions and requirements of European Union Directives, European Union Regulations and any other legislative measures of the European Union requiring transposition and, or implementation, as they may be amended from time to time, including any implementing measures that have been, or may be issued thereunder and relating to authorised persons and others as may be specified therein. Regulations made under this paragraph, and strictly related to transpositions or implementations as aforesaid, may provide that any provision of this Act or of any other law shall not apply to matters falling under such regulations, and that insofar as any of the provisions of the regulations are inconsistent with the provisions of this Act or of any other law, such provisions in any such regulations shall prevail;

(e) assign powers and functions to the competent authority for the purposes of the MiCA Regulation and this Act, and provide for the exercise of such powers and the performance of such functions;

(f) provide for the establishment and imposition of administrative penalties and other administrative measures that the competent authority may impose on crypto-asset service providers, issuers, offerors, persons seeking admission to trading and any other persons as may be specified therein;

(g) prescribe that a breach of any regulations made under this Act may amount to a criminal offence as may be specified, and such regulations may impose punishments in respect of any breach, consisting of a fine (multa) not exceeding five million euro (€5,000,000) or imprisonment for a term not exceeding six (6) years or both such fine and imprisonment in the case of a natural person; and a fine (multa) not exceeding fifteen million euro (€15,000,000) in the case of a legal person; and a higher fine (multa) may be imposed on such natural or legal person, as the case may be, where deemed necessary or appropriate for any breach or failure of compliance with any European Union Directive or European Union Regulation or with any regulations made under this article to transpose or to give effect to any European Union Directive or European Union Regulation;

(h) prescribe anything which may be prescribed; and

(i) provide for any matter incidental to, or connected with any of the above stipulated paragraphs.

(2) Regulations made under this article may be made subject to such exemptions or conditions as may be specified therein, may make different provision for different cases, circumstances or purposes and may give to the competent authority such powers and, or functions of adaptation of the regulations as may also be so specified.

(3) Where regulations have been made in terms of this article, the competent authority may issue Rules for the better carrying out and implementation of the provisions of any regulations made in accordance with this Act.

(4) Regulations made under this Act and any amendment or revocation of such regulations, may be published in the English language only.

(5) The exercise of any of the powers assigned under this article shall be subject to any obligations or rights arising from Malta’s international commitments.