EU authorizes 12 new crypto service providers under MiCA

In other words, NCAs grant authorizations, while ESMA ensures a consistent regulatory framework and transparency across the EU crypto market.

However, since MiCA came fully into force in December 2024, concerns have grown that some jurisdictions, especially smaller states with perceived fewer regulatory resources, such as Malta and Luxembourg, have become hotspots for license applications and approvals.

This was summed up by Marie-Anne Barbat-Layani, president of France’s financial services regulator (AMF), as a “race to the bottom” among regulators trying to lure in digital asset business. Last September, the French securities regulator hinted that it may even try to block companies that are licensed in other EU countries from operating in the country, over what it considers to be the inconsistent application of the EU’s licensing rules.

This situation led to calls for ESMA to take a more active role in the authorization process, and in November of last year, the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, began mooting plans to re-centralize digital asset supervision under ESMA.

On December 4, 2025, it adopted the “Market Integration and Supervision” package, aimed at removing barriers to an integrated capital market arising from differences in regulatory approaches, and at ensuring that passporting functions efficiently to facilitate operations across member states.

It is a comprehensive and extensive package that addresses around eighteen existing pieces of legislation, including reforming the EU’s distributed ledger technology (DLT) Pilot regime, which provides the legal framework for trading and settlement of transactions in crypto-assets that qualify as financial instruments, and recentralizing regulatory authority of the digital asset space.

The Commission has since been seeking input from important stakeholders and bodies that would be affected by the legislative and regulatory shake-up, including the European Central Bank (ECB).

On April 9, the ECB published an opinion addressing the proposals, including the centralization of the authorization authority with ESMA.

“The ECB welcomes the Commission proposal to strengthen the supervisory framework for crypto asset service providers (CASPs) by transferring authorisation, monitoring and enforcement powers for all CASPs from the NCAs to ESMA,” the ECB opinion read. “This measure will ensure supervisory convergence, reduce fragmentation and mitigate cross-border risks in crypto-asset markets, thereby supporting financial stability and the integrity of the single market.”

Under the proposed plans, ESMA would also assume responsibility for the enforcement of crypto-asset–specific market abuse rules, while credit institutions providing crypto-asset services would remain subject to the centralized banking supervision framework to preserve regulatory coherence.

The package of proposals, which includes the change to digital asset supervision, will still need to be negotiated and voted on in the European Parliament. Thus, if it passes, it will likely not take effect until 2027 at the earliest.

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Watch: What is MiCA? Understanding the EU regulatory framework with Juan Ignacio Ibanez