European Central Bank backs ESMA-led crypto supervision

The European Central Bank has backed a European Commission plan to move supervision of crypto-asset service providers from national regulators to the European Securities and Markets Authority, or ESMA, as part of a wider overhaul of EU capital markets oversight. The ECB gave its support in a formal opinion dated April 9.

The move matters because MiCA now leaves authorisation and supervision to national regulators, even though crypto firms can passport services across the bloc. The Commission’s proposal would shift that model toward EU-level oversight for crypto alongside other cross-border market players.

The proposal would move crypto oversight to Paris

In its opinion, the ECB said it fully supports stronger EU-level supervision of systemic cross-border market players and explicitly included crypto-asset service providers in that group. The Commission has proposed giving those powers to ESMA, the Paris-based markets watchdog.

The plan is part of the Commission’s market integration and supervision package, published in December, which sits within its savings and investments union strategy. ESMA has already said one of the package’s central measures is the transfer of direct supervision of certain cross-border infrastructures and crypto firms to the EU level.

The ECB wants the handover handled with care

The ECB did not just support the idea. It also said ESMA will need enough staff, funding, and enforcement powers to take on the work and warned that the handover from national authorities should be staged carefully to avoid disruption.

Over the past year, ESMA has pressed national regulators to apply MiCA authorisations more tightly and more consistently, especially for firms that are large, operate across borders, have complex structures, or are tied to custody and trading infrastructure. A move to direct supervision would take that effort a step further.

The next battle is political, not technical

The ECB’s opinion is required in the EU process, but it does not bind lawmakers. The proposal now moves into talks between member states and the European Parliament, where some smaller countries that host financial activity have already shown less appetite for giving ESMA more power.

For crypto firms operating across Europe, the direction is easy to see. Brussels is no longer focused only on writing common rules under MiCA. It is now trying to centralise enforcement when a firm’s business stretches across the union.