MiCA focus shifts from rulemaking to supervision, ESMA chair says

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) will focus its coordination of national crypto supervision in 2027 on operational resilience, outsourcing and firms maintaining sufficient operations inside the bloc as implementation deepens under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA).

ESMA Chair Verena Ross said Monday that the regulator’s focus under MiCA had shifted “from rulemaking towards supervision and convergence.”

“We want innovation to flourish within a framework that provides clarity for firms, safeguards for investors and confidence in the markets,” Ross said during a meeting of the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.

ESMA set out the priorities in its 2027 work program, published Monday. The regulator plans to strengthen coordination among national regulators supervising crypto asset service providers (CASPs), with operational resilience, outsourcing risks, liquidity, reverse solicitation and asset classification among its areas of focus.

ESMA also intends to harmonize CASPs’ periodic reporting to national regulators and promote common risk indicators and supervisory dashboards. ESMA plans to advance MIDAS, its centralized crypto-market surveillance system for monitoring potential market abuse under MiCA.

Source: ESMA

The regulator expects the system’s first phase to be fully operational in 2027. ESMA previously disclosed plans for a second phase in February. Monday’s work program said it would add analytical features and expand the types of data available, with rollout scheduled for the fourth quarter subject to board approval.

ESMA also plans to feed its supervisory experience into the European Commission’s MiCA review, expected by June 2027, and prepare for any legislative proposal that may follow.

Related: ECB, EU cenbanks seek changes in MiCA’s minimum bank deposit for stablecoins