When the issue is paused mid-sale: what to do first
A paused token sale needs an immediate answer, not a defence. Find out who ordered the pause — your own compliance team, the trading venue, or the regulator — and preserve every record of the offering as it stood at that moment. Do not resume marketing and do not restart the token contract until the reason is confirmed in writing.
The basis
A pause during a public token sale in the European Union sits under one of two regimes, sometimes both. If the pause concerns the offering document, the classification of the token, or the issuer's authorisation, the relevant text is Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCA), in force from 30 December 2024. If the pause follows a flag on a payment or on a transfer of the crypto-asset itself — a stalled wire, a rejected on-chain movement tied to the sale — the applicable text is Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 (TFR), in force from the same date. Which one applies decides who you contact first.
What changes for you
Once a sale is paused, two clocks start even without a public number attached to either. One clock belongs to whoever issued the pause: it runs until they receive a satisfactory response and it is stated, if at all, in their own notice, not in a single article you can cite in advance. The other clock is internal — every hour the sale stays frozen without a documented reason is an hour a later reviewer will ask about. Treat both as running now.
What to do first
- Compliance officer: locate the pause notice in writing and record the issuing body, the stated reason, and the time it was received.
- Legal counsel: freeze the state of the offering — no further allocations, no matching of orders, no marketing activity — and log the freeze internally with a timestamp.
- Finance lead: reconcile funds received against tokens allocated up to the moment of the pause, as precisely as the records allow.
- Compliance officer: send a factual, non-argumentative acknowledgement to whoever issued the pause, confirming receipt and asking for the evidentiary basis if none was given.
- Legal counsel: determine whether the pause falls on the offering-document side or the transfer side before drafting any substantive reply.
- Authorised signatory: approve any public statement before it goes out. A premature statement can itself become part of the evidence later.
Who decides
The body that ordered the pause decides whether and when it is lifted. That body assesses the evidence it already holds together with whatever the issuer submits in response. The table below sets out which body typically sits behind which type of pause, and what governs its assessment.
| Pause trigger | Who decides | What governs the assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Offering document or issuer authorisation questioned | Competent national authority in the host member state | Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCA) |
| Payment or crypto-asset transfer flagged | Payment or crypto-asset service provider, then the competent authority | Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 (TFR) |
| Trading venue's own risk decision | The venue's own compliance function | The venue's internal rulebook, not an EU act |
If your situation differs
If the pause came from the trading venue rather than from a regulator, the venue's own rulebook sets the timeline, not any EU act — check the venue's terms before assuming a statutory deadline exists.
If the underlying concern is a flagged transfer rather than the offering document itself, the matter moves into Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 (TFR) territory, and the venue is not the party with the final say.
If investors have already received a public update about the pause, treat that update as part of the evidentiary record before you add anything further to it.
What this page does not cover
This page does not verify what a named counterparty in the sale can actually be shown to control once the pause is examined more closely. A commissioned check answers that separately: Counterparty report france.
It does not confirm what a specific document in the file will hold up as evidence if it is challenged. That question sits in a dedicated report of its own: Document report france.
It does not settle which jurisdiction's rules ultimately govern the sale where more than one border is in play. That is answered separately as well: Jurisdiction report france.
Related situation
If the pause develops into a formal challenge to the offering document itself, the exposure at that stage is different from the exposure of a pause on its own: When the offering document is questioned: what it costs.
Verified
Reviewed: March 2025. Primary sources: Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCA); Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 (TFR). Where preserved records include investors' personal data, our own handling of that data follows the Data processing agreement step by step.
Frequently asked questions
What is the first step when the issue is paused mid-sale?
Identify who ordered the pause and secure the state of the offering exactly as it stood at that moment, before responding to anyone.
Which deadline is already running?
There is no single statutory clock attached to every pause. The deadline for a substantive response is set by whichever body issued the pause and is stated in its own notice, not in a fixed EU-wide number.
Who decides, and on what evidence?
The body that ordered the pause decides, based on the evidence it already holds plus what the issuer submits. Where the pause concerns the offering itself, that assessment sits under Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCA); where it concerns a flagged transfer, it sits under Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 (TFR).