European Commission Launches Blockchain Regulatory Sandbox

On February 14th, the European Commission announced that they will be launching a regulatory sandbox for innovative use cases involving Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT).

The sandbox aims to increase legal certainty for innovative blockchain solutions by giving developers the opportunity to discuss their projects directly with, and receive guidance from, regulators also participating in the sandbox.

The sandbox will be facilitated by a consortium led by law firm Bird & Bird and its consulting arm OXYGY, supported by blockchain experts of WBNoDE and web designers of Spindox. Projects will be chosen through calls for expression of interest, with priority given to more mature use cases where legal and regulatory questions of broader relevance arise.

Applications are open to companies from all industry sectors, as well as public entities for projects beyond a proof-of-concept stage involving the use of DLT. Use cases chosen for deployment between public authorities in the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure will have priority, but up to 20 cross-border use cases can participate annually.

The sandbox will also cooperate with other relevant sandboxing frameworks, in particular, the EU Digital Finance Platform and the Artificial Intelligence Sandboxes once established under the AI Act.

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Applications are open for the first round of the sandbox until April 14, 2023. The European Blockchain Regulatory Sandbox will operate for three years with three annual cohorts of 20 use cases each.

Read more about the regulation of blockchain and cryptocurrency in the EU:

• What is the MiCA Regulation and how will it impact crypto?
• EU Agrees on Final Crypto and Stablecoin Regulation
• EU Parliament vote on MiCA Regulation postponed until April