Cap. 647 Art. 43Powers of the competent authority.

(1) Without prejudice to any other power conferred upon it by the MiCA Regulation, this Act or any other law, the competent authority shall have the following powers:

(a) to suspend, or to require a crypto-asset service provider to suspend the provision of crypto-asset services for a maximum of thirty (30) consecutive working days on any single occasion where there are reasonable grounds for suspecting any of the provisions of the MiCA Regulation, this Act or any regulations made, or Rules issued thereunder have been breached;

(b) to prohibit the provision of crypto-asset services where the competent authority finds that any of the provisions of the MiCA Regulation, this Act or any regulations made, or Rules issued thereunder have been breached;

(c) to disclose, or to require a crypto-asset servicer provider to disclose, all material information which might have an effect on the provision of the crypto-asset services concerned, in order to ensure the protection of the interests of clients, in particular retail holders, or the smooth operation of the market;

(d) to make public the fact that a crypto-asset service provider failed or fails to fulfil its obligations;

(e) to suspend, or to require a crypto-asset service provider to suspend the provision of crypto-asset services where the competent authority considers that the crypto-asset service provider’s situation is such that the provision of the crypto-asset service would be detrimental to the interests of clients, in particular retail holders;

(f) to require the transfer of existing contracts to another crypto-asset service provider in cases where a crypto-asset service provider’s authorisation is withdrawn in accordance with Article 64 of the MiCA Regulation and article 30, subject to the agreement of the clients and the crypto-asset service provider to which the contracts are to be transferred;

(g) where there is a reason to assume that a person is providing crypto-asset services without authorisation, to order the immediate cessation of the activity without prior warning or imposition of a deadline;

(h) to require offerors, persons seeking admission to trading of crypto-assets, or issuers of asset-referenced tokens or e-money tokens to amend their crypto-asset white paper or further amend their modified crypto-asset white paper, where they find that the crypto-asset white paper or the modified crypto-asset white paper does not contain the information required by Article 6, Article 19 or Article 51 of the MiCA Regulation, as applicable;

(i) to require offerors, persons seeking admission to trading of crypto-assets, or issuers of asset-referenced tokens or e-money tokens, to amend their marketing communications, where they find that the marketing communications do not comply with the requirements set out in Article 7, Article 29 or Article 53 of the MiCA Regulation, as applicable;

(j) to require offerors, persons seeking admission to trading of crypto-assets, or issuers of asset-referenced tokens or e-money tokens, to include additional information in their crypto-asset white papers, where necessary for financial stability or the protection of the interests of the holders of crypto-assets, in particular retail holders;

(k) to suspend an offer to the public or an admission to trading of crypto-assets for a maximum of thirty (30) consecutive working days on any single occasion where there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that any of the provisions of the MiCA Regulation, this Act or any regulations made, or Rules issued thereunder have been breached;

(l) to prohibit an offer to the public or an admission to trading of crypto-assets where the competent authority finds that any of the provisions of the MiCA Regulation, this Act or any regulations made, or Rules issued thereunder have been breached or where there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that they are going to be breached;

(m) to suspend, or require a crypto-asset service provider operating a trading platform for crypto-assets to suspend, trading of the crypto-assets for a maximum of thirty

(30) consecutive working days on any single occasion where there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that any of the provisions of the MiCA Regulation, this Act or any regulations made, or Rules issued thereunder have been breached;

(n) to prohibit trading of crypto-assets on a trading platform for crypto-assets where the competent authority finds that any of the provisions of the MiCA Regulation, this Act or any regulations made, or Rules issued thereunder have been breached or where there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that they are going to be breached;

(o) to suspend or prohibit marketing communications where there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that any of the provisions of the MiCA Regulation, this Act or any regulations made, or Rules issued thereunder have been breached;

(p) to require offerors, persons seeking admission to trading of crypto-assets, issuers of asset-referenced tokens or e-money tokens or relevant crypto-asset service providers to cease or suspend marketing communications for a maximum of thirty (30) consecutive working days on any single occasion where there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that any of the provisions of the MiCA Regulation, this Act or any regulations made, or Rules issued thereunder have been breached;

(q) to make public the fact that an offeror, a person seeking admission to trading of a crypto-asset or an issuer of an asset-referenced token or e-money token, fails to fulfil its obligations under the MiCA Regulation, this Act or any regulations made, or Rules issued thereunder;

(r) to disclose, or to require the offeror, the person seeking admission to trading of a crypto-asset or the issuer of the asset-referenced token or e-money token, all material information which may have an effect on the assessment of the crypto-asset offered to the public or admitted to trading in order to ensure the protection of the interests of holders of crypto-assets, in particular retail holders, or the smooth operation of the market;

(s) to suspend, or require the relevant crypto-asset service provider operating the trading platform for crypto-assets to suspend, the crypto-assets from trading where the competent authority considers that the situation of the offeror, the person seeking admission to trading of a crypto-asset or the issuer of an asset-referenced token or an e-money token is such that trading would be detrimental to the interests of the holders of crypto-assets, in particular retail holders;

(t) where there is a reason to assume that a person is issuing asset-referenced tokens or e-money tokens without authorisation, or a person is offering or seeking admission to trading of crypto-assets other than asset-referenced tokens or e-money tokens without a crypto-asset white paper notified in accordance with Article 8 of the MiCA Regulation and articles 5 to 7, to order the immediate cessation of the activity without prior warning or imposition of a deadline;

(u) to take any type of measure to ensure that an offeror or a person seeking admission to trading of crypto-assets, an issuer of an asset-referenced token or an e-money token or a crypto-asset service provider comply with the MiCA Regulation, this Act and any regulations made, and Rules issued thereunder including to require the cessation of any practice or conduct that the competent authority considers contrary to the MiCA Regulation, this Act or any regulations made, or Rules issued thereunder;

(v) to outsource verifications or investigations to auditors or experts;

(w) to require the removal of a natural person from the management body of an issuer of an asset-referenced token or of a crypto-asset service provider;

(x) to request any person to take steps to reduce the size of its position or exposure to crypto-assets;

(y) where no other effective means are available to bring about the cessation of the breach of any of the provisions of the MiCA Regulation, this Act or any regulations made, or Rules issued thereunder and in order to avoid the risk of serious harm to the interests of clients or holders of crypto-assets, to take all necessary measures, including by requesting a third party or a public authority to implement such measures to:

(i) remove content or restrict access to an online interface or to order the explicit display of a warning to clients and holders of crypto-assets when they access an online interface;

(ii) order a hosting service provider to remove, disable or restrict access to an online interface; or

(iii) order domain registries or registrars to delete a fully qualified domain name and allow the competent authority concerned to register it; and

(z) to require an issuer of an asset-referenced token or e-money token, in accordance with Articles 23(4), 24(3) or 58(3) of the MiCA Regulation, to introduce a minimum denomination amount or to limit the amount issued.

(2) The competent authority shall exercise any of its powers under sub-article (1) in any of the following ways:

(a) directly;

(b) in collaboration with other authorities, including the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit;

(c) under its responsibility, by delegation to the authority referred to in paragraph (b); or

(d) by application to the competent courts.

(3) Without prejudice to sub-article (1), in order to fulfil its duties under Titles VI of the MiCA Regulation and Part VI the competent authority shall also have the following powers:

(a) to refer matters for criminal prosecution;

(b) to require existing data traffic records held by a telecommunications operator, where there is a reasonable suspicion of a breach and where such records may be relevant to the investigation of an infringement of Articles 88 to 91 of the MiCA Regulation;

(c) to request the freezing or sequestration of assets, or both;

(d) to impose a temporary prohibition on the exercise of professional activity; and

(e) to take all necessary measures to ensure that the public is correctly informed, inter alia, by correcting false or misleading disclosed information, including by requiring an offeror, person seeking admission to trading or issuer or other person who has published or disseminated false or misleading information to publish a corrective statement.