Wine NFT cryptoassets: EU regulatory issues and market challenges

Full Professor of Commercial Law, Faculty of Law, Universidad Pontificia Comillas, 28015 Madrid, España

Abstract

The present paper examines the concept, legal nature and key legal issues faced by non-fungible tokens (NFTs) representing wine bottles to be marketed in decentralized secondary platforms qualified as organized marketplaces in accordance with the provisions of the ongoing provisions of the EU Market in Cryptoaset Regulation (hereinafter MiCA). The analysis is extended to essential market challenges posed by the aforementioned rules within the context of the functioning of wine token platforms in DLT (blockchain) public-permissioned networks (PPDLs). Specific MiCA compliance for NFT wine trading and the relationship between the property of the underlying deliverable wine and the credit rights of the token holder are aksi discussed under the perspective of MiCA stablecoin regulation and particular consumer law rules and principles, in order to efficiently organize markets to protect NFT holders, wine buyers and related rights of producers, distributors and intermediaries along the wine chain of value.