MiCA Recital (55) — preamble

(55) To prevent the risk of loss for asset-referenced tokens and to preserve the value of those assets, issuers of assetreferenced tokens should have an adequate custody policy for their reserve assets. That policy should ensure that the reserve assets are fully segregated from the issuer’s own assets at all times, that the reserve assets are not encumbered or pledged as collateral, and that the issuer of asset-referenced tokens has prompt access to those reserve assets. The reserve assets should, depending on their nature, be held in custody by a crypto-asset service provider, by a credit institution authorised under Directive 2013/36/EU or by an investment firm authorised under Directive 2014/65/EU. That should not exclude the possibility of delegating the holding of the physical assets to another entity. Crypto-asset service providers, credit institutions or investment firms that act as custodians of reserve assets should be responsible for the loss of such reserve assets vis-à-vis the issuer or the holders of the asset-referenced tokens, unless they prove that such loss has arisen as a result of an external event beyond their reasonable control. Concentrations of the custodians of reserve assets should be avoided. However, in certain situations, that might not be possible due to a lack of suitable alternatives. In such cases, a temporary concentration should be deemed acceptable.