Moldova Introduces Regulations on Cryptocurrencies with New 'Crypto-Asset Market Act'

Moldova is set to become the latest European country to introduce regulations on cryptocurrencies and tokens. The 'Crypto-Asset Market Act' will come into force on March 17, 2027, marking a significant step towards digitalising the financial sector and attracting international fintech innovations.

The new legislation establishes a regulatory 'sandbox' for market infrastructures based on distributed ledger technology (DLT), designed to adapt European practices to the Moldovan context. The initiative will allow financial institutions to issue, hold, and trade traditional assets in tokenised form under strict regulation.

The three key categories of instruments covered by the sandbox are tokenised shares, tokenised bonds (and other forms of corporate or government debt), and units in collective investment schemes. The main objective is to test the capabilities of blockchain technology in a real-world market, reducing intermediaries, cutting settlement times from T+2 days to real-time (T+0), and providing investors with direct access to market infrastructures.