The European Union’s markets regulator is preparing to expand its authority to cover cryptocurrency exchanges and other operators, according to a move officials say will better monitor with the bloc’s newly implemented Markets Framework in Crypto-Assets (MICA).
Verena Ross, president of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), confirmed in an interview with the Financial Times that the European Commission is developing plans to move supervision of several financial sectors, including crypto, from national regulators to ESMA.
Ross said the reform would help build “a more integrated and competitive EU financial landscape”. The proposal aims to combat “continued fragmentation in markets” and move closer to a unified capital market across Europe, she said.
Under the current MICA regime, licenses for crypto-asset service providers are issued by national authorities rather than a central EU body.
Smaller member states have led the rollout so far. Lithuania granted its first license to refresh brokerage Robinhood Europe earlier this year, while Malta authorized large exchanges including OKX and Crypto.com. In Luxembourg, Bitstamp and Coinbase have also obtained MICA licenses.
Ross argued that delegating supervision to individual countries created inefficiencies, forcing each national authority to build its own expertise and monitoring systems. ESMA has also raised concerns about inconsistent licensing standards, including a July review that criticized elements of Malta’s licensing process.
Established in 2011 following the 2008 global financial crisis, ESMA was created as part of the European System of Financial Supervision to harmonize financial regulation across the bloc.
Mica, which came into force from June 2024, is the EU’s landmark crypto law designed to create a unified framework for digital asset issuers and service providers across all 27 member states.
Mica faces pressure on cross-border ‘passport’
ESMA’s efforts to streamline and unify crypto regulation collide with growing tensions among EU member states over the so-called “passporting” rule – a key feature of the MICA framework that allows companies licensed in one country to operate across the bloc without needing separate approvals.
In a recent Cointelegraph podcast, Jerome Castille, Head of Compliance at Coinshares, said the biggest challenge facing MICA is consistent implementation across all member states.
Marina Markezic, executive director of the European Crypto Initiative, a policy group advocating for pro-industry regulation, said the problem stems from “27 different national authorities overseeing the same regulation.” She argued that this fragmented approach risks undermining the main objective of Mica harmonization.
The passport system has sparked controversy among some of the bloc’s biggest markets. France, for example, will consider restrictions on crypto companies that are licensed elsewhere in the EU but want to operate within its borders – a move, critics say
“From what we have seen, blocking the passport under MICA is technically possible, although it has significant legal complexity,” Markezic said.
