From Dollar Dominance to Euro Ambitions
A high-level debate on the world’s next currency competition.
Europe's Answer to the Stablecoin Challenge
A legal and strategic roadmap for Europe's digital money future.
CBDCs: Public Money in a Digital Age
A rare insight directly from the institution designing the monetary system of tomorrow.
Driving Innovation: Stablecoins in the Private Economy
In this keynote as part of our Vienna FinTech Week 2025 event, Prof. Alfred Taudes explored why privately issued digital assets have become the cornerstone of payment innovation — and how Europe must react if it doesn’t want to fall behind.
Decentralization on Trial - What Regulation Means for Layer-1 Governance in Europe
Regulators across Europe are tightening their grip on crypto. MiCA brings clarity, but where does that leave Layer-1 protocols, the very foundations of decentralized ecosystems? CERHA HEMPEL partner Oliver Völkel sat down with Nicolas Jacquemart, Chief Legal Officer of the Cardano Foundation, and Nathalie Boyke, Founder of Nucleus42 and former Head of Public Affairs at Web3 Foundation, to debate what comes next for blockchain governance in Europe.
Austria and MiCA: clarity, complexity, and compliance in 2026
Few topics currently capture the attention of the financial sector as strongly as stablecoins. Only recently, the United States introduced the GENIUS Act, creating a dedicated legal framework for their issuance. In Europe, by contrast, a binding regime for so-called e-money tokens has already been in place for more than a year through the EU Regulation on Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA).
Stablecoins: From Niche Product to Power Instrument
Few topics currently capture the attention of the financial sector as strongly as stablecoins. Only recently, the United States introduced the GENIUS Act, creating a dedicated legal framework for their issuance. In Europe, by contrast, a binding regime for so-called e-money tokens has already been in place for more than a year through the EU Regulation on Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA).
Digital Assets in Enforcement and Insolvency: Matthias Lehmann
Matthias Lehmann highlights that digital assets present new challenges due to their intangible, pseudonymous, and global nature, which may require specific rules of enforcement and insolvency law. An illustration of these challenges, according to Lehmann, is the question of whether a custodian of digital assets must respond to information requests and comply with asset freezes and seizures issued by foreign enforcement authorities. This is just one example of the many issues that still need to be resolved.
Digital Assets in Enforcement and Insolvency: Philipp Bohrn
Philipp Bohrn emphasizes that enforcement and insolvency are key topics in the evolution of digital assets. As more people use digital assets, more questions regarding enforcement and insolvency arise in practical cases. Bohrn points out that there are key differences between digital assets that need to be considered not only legally but also in practice. Therefore, he stresses that increased collaboration between lawyers, university researchers, and firms will be necessary to find the best answers for all situations.
Panel Diskussion: Digital Assets in Enforcement and Insolvency
Digital assets in the context of insolvency and enforcement present a range of complex theoretical and practical challenges. For example, insolvency practitioners often grapple with the task of tracing digital assets and compelling the cooperation of insolvent debtors. Notably, the specific provisions of the Austrian Enforcement Act addressing "virtual currencies" remain untested in practice, leaving their practical application and effectiveness uncertain.