The European Securities and Markets Authority has published a new Q&A clarifying that certain “shared order book” arrangements are not compliant with the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) where they involve non-EU trading platforms. The Q&A addresses models in which two or more crypto-asset platforms merge their separate order books into a single unified order book from which orders are matched. ESMA explains that, when such a setup includes non-EU platforms, it breaches MiCA’s authorisation requirements and is intended to guide firms applying for MiCA authorisation.