EU’s Crypto Supervision Shakeup: How ESMA Wants to End the Wild West of Crypto Oversight

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Well, the European Union is at it again-this time with a grand plan to finally take control of cryptocurrency exchanges. Apparently, national regulators have been running the show, and now the EU wants to fix that. According to Verena Ross, the head honcho at the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), it’s time for crypto oversight to stop being the wild, unregulated playground of national authorities and become a well-mannered, global player under one roof. 🌍

In a recent chat with the Financial Times, Ross revealed that the European Commission is cooking up plans to move the supervision of crypto from individual countries to ESMA itself. The idea is to tidy up that fragmented mess of national rules and create a more “integrated and globally competitive” financial landscape. Because if there’s one thing that screams “competitive,” it’s a unified EU crypto system.

“We can’t have this chaos anymore!” Ross likely said, in an impassioned plea. The current setup has crypto-asset service providers (fancy term for crypto companies) getting their licenses from national authorities, which has led to some… shall we say, inconsistencies. Lithuania’s been the eager beaver, issuing its first license to Robinhood Europe. Malta’s given the green light to major players like OKX and Crypto.com. Meanwhile, Luxembourg let Bitstamp and Coinbase join the party. It’s a free-for-all out there. 🎉

But, Ross says, delegating the task to individual countries is inefficient. Every nation has had to reinvent the wheel, creating their own systems and expertise. Meanwhile, ESMA’s been throwing up its hands in frustration, watching as countries like Malta come under fire for their inconsistent licensing process. But hey, no biggie-just a little regulatory hiccup, right? 😅

ESMA’s been around since 2011, birthed from the ashes of the 2008 financial crisis, with a mission to harmonize Europe’s financial regulations. That’s right, folks-ESMA was supposed to make things smooth and easy for everyone. So, of course, when MiCA (the EU’s crypto law) rolled out in June 2024, it seemed like a perfect fit. MiCA’s goal? To bring all 27 EU member states into harmony for digital asset issuers and service providers. Sounds lovely, doesn’t it? 💫

MiCA Faces Drama: Is “Passporting” the New Crypto Soap Opera?

But not everyone’s throwing a confetti parade. Enter the “passporting” rule-a lovely little MiCA feature that lets companies licensed in one EU country operate everywhere, without needing separate approvals. Simple, right? WRONG. It turns out, getting 27 different countries to agree on what “passporting” should actually mean is more challenging than explaining blockchain to your grandmother. 🙄

In a CryptoMoon podcast, Jerome Castille of CoinShares said the biggest roadblock is getting the EU to implement MiCA consistently across all member states. How hard could it be, right? Just get a bunch of countries to agree on something they’re all legally bound to do. Easy peasy.

Marina Markezic, who runs the European Crypto Initiative, was more blunt. “Having 27 different authorities supervise the same thing is a disaster waiting to happen,” she said. Yeah, no kidding. Who knew that trying to unify 27 countries under one crypto umbrella might be a little tricky? 😬

And here comes the drama: some of the EU’s big players, like France, are already grumbling about allowing companies licensed elsewhere in the EU to operate on their turf. France is reportedly considering restrictions on crypto companies that were licensed in other EU countries but want to do business in France. Some are crying foul, claiming this could violate the single-market principles.

Markezic summed it up by saying, “Blocking passporting under MiCA is possible, but it’s a legal minefield.” So much for the EU’s grand plans to make crypto regulation one big happy family. Whoops. 😬

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2025-10-06 18:58