In this Compliance Champions episode, Solidus Labs’ Delphine Forma speaks with Sander Van de Ven, Head of Legal at IMC Crypto, about what it takes to run a global, multi-venues market-making operation: safely and at scale.
💡 Highlights:
- IMC’s crypto stack: Prop trading and liquidity provision across CeFi/DeFi, spot, options, futures & perpetuals, plus OTC.
- Licensing & structure: Why IMC chose the Cayman Islands (VASP Act & SIBA), the core obligations (AML/KYC, governance, fit-and-proper, policies/procedures), and tips for working with CIMA and local counsel.
- Market conduct: CIMA’s proposal on exchanges trading on own account vs. MiCA’s stricter ban for CASPs dealing on own account —and why effective information barriers matter.
- Are market makers CASPs under MiCA? typically no when there's no client relationship or custody—nuance applies and it all depends on the business model.
- Market integrity: IMC’s real-time surveillance (adapted from TradFi) for spoofing, wash trading, and cross-account activity—plus insider-trading controls.
- DeFi risk management: Pre-trade pool screening with blockchain analytics, thresholding for illicit-exposure, and aligning to board-level risk appetite.
- Token due diligence: Team/UBO verification, tokenomics & lockups, regulatory checks (e.g., MiCA white paper), and why “document everything” still wins.
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