The European Central Bank (ECB) has officially announced its support for the proposal to transfer supervision of crypto asset service providers to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). The move aims to integrate 27 fragmented national licensing systems into a single enforcement framework based in Paris.
The ECB opinion, published in response to the European Commission’s 2025 Capital Markets Package (COM/2025/941, 942, 943), positions ESMA as the direct supervisor of systemically important crypto-asset service providers in the EU.
This trend is already meeting resistance from member states who have built their regulatory infrastructure – and their licensing revenues – around the MiCA model.
Ireland, Luxembourg and Malta have become preferred destinations for crypto licensing under the current framework. Centralized surveillance by ESMA would deprive these countries of their competitive advantage overnight.
The problem is not with the European Central Bank’s desire to make this change, since it clearly supports it, but rather with the ability of the Commission’s capital markets program to withstand member state resistance long enough to become effective law.
- The position of the European Central Bank: The bank officially supports the transfer of crypto service provider supervision (CASP) from national authorities to ESMA as part of the 2025 Capital Markets Package.
- MiCA effect: ESMA’s central supervision will replace 27 national enforcement systems with a single authority, ending regulatory arbitrage between EU jurisdictions.
- Institutional request: The ECB is applying to become an observer (without voting rights) on the new ESMA board for crypto discussions, with direct access to data and imposing risk-sensitive self-financing requirements.
- Stable coins: The bank is pushing for restrictions on e-money tokens used as settlement assets in the absence of central bank money, a direct restriction on the expansion of euro-pegged stablecoins.
- Calendar: MiCA transition periods end in the first quarter of 2026; It is expected that the expansion of ESMA’s powers will begin gradually in line with the relevance assessments carried out by the European Banking Authority (EBA).
- Licensing Center Risks: Countries with existing licensing systems risk losing regulatory jurisdiction and competitive differentiation if ESMA centralization is adopted.
- To monitor: Commission negotiations on the 2025 package; Any abandonment of direct authority to ESMA would mean a decline in political dynamics in favor of the centralizing tendency.
What will ESMA regulations change for stablecoin platforms and issuers?
In the current structure of MiCA, crypto asset service providers obtain a license from the national authority of their home country and then use this license to operate across the EU (passporting). This model mimics how traditional financial firms operate under MiFID II.
In theory, this regime provides access to the single market, but in practice it creates an asymmetry in enforcement: a supplier approved in a jurisdiction with lax national regulation faces fundamentally different compliance pressures than its counterpart in a stricter regime, although both enjoy the same rights to operate across the Union.
Direct supervision by ESMA will eliminate this gap. Platforms that exceed a specific regulatory threshold will report to ESMA rather than its national authorities, meaning standardization of enforcement standards, inspection frequency and sanction structures, regardless of where the company is based.
ESMA already has a public register of token issuers (ART and EMT) and has the power to maintain a blacklist of non-compliant service providers. Giving it direct supervisory power over large companies would expand its scope from simple record-keeping to active enforcement, which constitutes a completely different institutional role.
For stablecoin issuers in particular, the European Central Bank’s push to impose restrictions on e-money tokens as settlement assets adds a second layer of restrictions. Currently, issuers of these tokens are subject to supervision by the European Banking Authority (EBA) when their reserves reach 5 billion euros or reach 10 million users.
But ECB-backed restrictions will impose volume limits above these thresholds. Major exchanges that operate large stablecoin settlements – including Binance and OKX, whose reserve disclosures have come under scrutiny – are directly exposed to these restrictions if the final rules are adopted.
Why is the ECB putting pressure now? What do his claims reveal?
The ECB’s opinion was not spontaneous; The European Commission published three legislative proposals in late 2025 (COM/2025/941, 942, 943) aimed at deepening the Capital Markets Union by expanding ESMA’s direct powers over clearing houses, central depository institutions, crypto service providers and systemically important trading platforms.
The Central Bank’s approval of ESMA is part of its official response to this package, coupled with a specific institutional request: an observer seat on the new ESMA board for discussions related to crypto-asset service providers.
This request is of great importance; Non-voting membership gives the ECB a permanent seat in ESMA’s supervisory deliberations without the need to expand the legislative powers of the bank itself.
This is a mechanism to influence monetary policy through the monitoring of cryptocurrencies without formal judicial interference, and it clearly indicates that the ECB views the activity of crypto service providers as directly linked to monetary stability, and not just the integrity of financial markets.
The ECB also explicitly referred to the staffing issue, warning that ESMA needs “sufficient financial and human resources” to take on expanded supervisory responsibilities without operational pressures.
This warning is not just rhetoric. ESMA’s January 2025 statement – which urged national authorities to impose restrictions on non-MiCA-compliant exporters by the end of the first quarter of 2025 – tested the body’s coordination capacity. Adding direct oversight without increasing staffing levels will strain the institutional infrastructure itself. This regulatory path mirrors what is happening globally, such as the reclassification of cryptocurrencies in Japan under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, which shows a global trend of moving cryptocurrencies from payment frameworks to strict securities-like oversight.
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