The European Securities and Markets Authority has launched a consultation on proposed guidelines on standard forms, formats and templates to apply for permission to operate distributed ledger technology for market infrastructure. The EU Regulation on a pilot regime for DLT market infrastructures will permit certain DLT market infrastructures to operate with exemptions from some elements of otherwise applicable EU financial services legislation, which may otherwise inhibit the trading and settlement of crypto-assets. The DLT Regulation sets the conditions for operating a DLT multilateral trading facility (DLT MTF), DLT settlement system (DLT SS) and DLT trading and settlement system (DLT TSS), and will, for the most part, apply from March 23, 2023. ESMA is consulting on proposed guidelines on:

• the minimum instructions that national competent authorities should provide to market participants for submitting their applications; and
• the method that applicants should use to provide the requested information and documents to their competent authorities.

Responses to the consultation may be submitted until September 9, 2022. ESMA will consider the feedback and intends to publish the final guidelines before the DLT Regulation applies.

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