Crypto-assets

Yes. Act No. 747/2004 Coll. on Supervision of the Financial Market, Section 40(2), third sentence, stipulates that for the calculation of the annual contribution, the decisive factor in relevant cases is the volume of assets reported in the financial statements audited by an auditor in accordance with Act No. 431/2002 Coll. on Accounting. As this provision applies from 30 December 2024, to crypto-asset service providers who obtain authorization from the NBS to provide crypto-asset services, these entities will be required to have their financial statements audited.  

The application, including its attachments, shall be submitted in Slovak. If any of the attachments are in another language, an officially certified translation into Slovak must also be submitted. The NBS may, on the basis of a written proposal of the applicant, waive the submission of an officially certified translation of the technical documentation or other attachment into Slovak if it is drawn up in the Czech language or in a language commonly used in the field of international finance, most often in English.

The NBS will comply with the timelines set out in the MiCA, while the simplified procedure for authorisation will not be applied in Slovakia. The NBS will assess whether the application is complete within 25 working days of receipt of the application. If the application is complete, the NBS will decide within 40 working days from the date of receipt of the complete application whether to approve or reject it. The length of the licensing procedure is primarily influenced by the readiness of the applicant. If you are planning to apply for a MiCA license in Slovakia, we recommend that you contact the NBS (crypto@nbs.sk) prior to submitting the application itself and take advantage of the so-called pre-licensing dialogue, which may help you to improve the quality of your application and thus help to reduce the length of the licensing procedure.

Authorization from NBS is necessary for provision of the following crypto-asset services:

1. providing custody and administration of crypto-assets on behalf of clients
2. operation of a trading platform for crypto-asset
3. exchange of crypto-assets for funds
4. exchange of crypto-assets for other crypto-assets
5. execution of orders for crypto-assets on behalf of clients
6. placing of crypto-assets
7. reception and transmission of orders for crypto-assets on behalf of clients
8. providing advice on crypto-assets
9. providing portfolio management on crypto-assets
10. providing transfer services for crypto-assets on behalf of clients

Definitions of crypto-asset services are contained in Art. 3 section 1 MiCA.

No. Natural and legal persons buying /selling crypto-asets on their own account and who do not provide any crypto-asset services as it is defined in Art. 3 section 1 MiCA do not need any authorization from NBS.

The provisions of the MiCA Regulation relating to the provision of crypto-asset services began to apply on 30 December 2024. Persons who were authorized in the Slovak Republic to provide virtual currency exchange services or virtual currency wallet services before 30 December 2024 may continue to perform crypto-asset related services until 30 December 2025 at the latest. After this date, only entities that hold an authorization to provide crypto-asset services issued by the National Bank of Slovakia or the competent foreign supervisory authority will be allowed to carry out such activities.

Requests for getting authorization for the providers of crypto-asset services are contained in Art. 59 – 65 MiCA and will further be specified in delegated and implementing regulations and guidelines which are prepared by European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and European Banking Authority (EBA). Overview of the relevant legislation can be found in the section Legislation.

NBS will start to receive authorization requests for the provision of crypto-asset services after the delegated and implementing regulation on the details of the authorization application comes into force. Decision on granting of authorization can be effective at the earliest on 30 December 2024. NBS offers to applicants possibility of consultation concerning the authorization before its submission. In case of interest for consultation before submission of the request you can write us to the email address: crypto@nbs.sk and send us a detailed description of your business model, including the type of crypto-asset service according to Art. 3 section 1 MiCA, which you intend to provide.

Based on passporting (freedom of settlement, or free provision of services in the EU), an entity which obtains an authorization for the provision of crypto-asset services from NBS can freely provide these services in all of the Member states of the EU.

Yes. Professionals or public can get involved into consultations of delegated and implementing regulation and guidelines which are being prepared by European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and European Banking Authority (EBA). Overview of all the consultations opened are contained in the section Legislation as well as on the website of ESMA and EBA, where is described the way of engaging in consultation. On behalf of NBS we would like to ask you to send us responses which will be sent to EBA/ESMA to get overview of all responses of Slovak entities. Your responses can be sent to email address crypto@nbs.sk