Finfluencer event by Bundesblock

The German Blockchain Association (Bundesblock) hosted its first dedicated event for crypto content creators yesterday:

“No Financial Advice” – Crypto Content, MiCAR & the New Responsibilities of Creators.”

Together with creators, influencers, founders, tax experts, and legal practitioners, we discussed how the regulatory landscape for crypto content is changing under MiCAR and related EU rules.

Some of the legal questions are familiar:

• Where does educational content end and advertising begin?

• What might be investment advice or brokerage (requiring a BaFin license)?

• When does a general statement become an investment recommendation?

• What are the consequences of receiving tokens, NFTs, or other benefits in exchange for promotion?

• Can developers, foundation representatives, and community managers become subject to market abuse rules even if they are not issuers or CASPs?

What stood out most, however, was not a legal question but a policy concern raised repeatedly by creators in the audience. Many compliant German creators feel that they are facing an ever-growing compliance burden: advertising disclosures, AI-generated content labels, transparency requirements, conflict-of-interest disclosures, tax considerations, platform policies, and now MiCAR-related market abuse concerns.

❌ At the same time, a significant amount of crypto content targeting German audiences originates from outside Germany and often appears to ignore these requirements entirely.

🧨 This creates a structural imbalance: those who try to comply bear increasing costs and legal risks, while non-compliant actors may continue to benefit from undisturbed reach, engagement, and monetisation.

One proposal was the development of a quality label or trust mark for creators who commit to transparency, disclosure, and responsible communication - but who will actually recognize?

👉 An equally interesting question is whether regulators should simply become more visible in identifying problematic actors. Rather than creating ever more obligations for compliant market participants, should there be greater public enforcement visibility? For example, could BaFin or even better ESMA maintain a public warning list of influencers and content channels that repeatedly breach financial promotion, market abuse, or consumer protection rules? A naming&shaming best practice?

❗ Trust is becoming one of the most valuable assets in digital finance. The challenge for policymakers is ensuring that compliance becomes a competitive advantage rather than a competitive disadvantage.