ECB officially supports centralizing primary regulatory authority over major crypto enterprises to ESMA

Under this proposal, supervisory authority over systemically important cross-border entities will be transferred from national competent authorities to ESMA, covering large CASPs, trading venues, central counterparties (CCPs), and central securities depositories (CSDs). This represents the most significant structural adjustment to the EU’s crypto regulatory architecture since the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) fully applied to CASPs at the end of 2024. Under the current MiCA framework, national competent authorities serve as first-line supervisors, while ESMA plays only a coordinating role.