Europe Wants One Crypto Regulator Instead Of 27 — ECB Agrees

The European Central Bank endorsed a European Union plan to strip national regulators of crypto oversight and hand it to a single EU-level authority.

ECB Crypto Oversight Endorsement

The ECB on Friday backed the European Commission's proposal to centralize supervision of key financial market participants, including crypto asset service providers, Reuters reported.

The plan would transfer licensing and supervisory powers to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).

Under the proposal, driven by France and Germany, ESMA would take over authorization of all crypto firms across the bloc. The idea first emerged during the development of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA).

"The ECB fully supports the Commission proposals, which constitute an ambitious step towards deeper integration of capital markets and financial market supervision within the Union," the bank said in a non-binding opinion.

ESMA Chair Verena Ross had previously argued that building regulatory expertise 27 times across separate national authorities was inefficient. The ECB noted that ESMA would need adequate staffing and resources, and recommended a gradual transition to minimize disruption. EU governments and the European Parliament are expected to negotiate the proposal over several months.

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MiCA Credibility Concerns

Not everyone agrees with the shift. Several smaller nations — Luxembourg, Ireland and Malta — have warned the plan could weaken their financial sectors.

Robert Kopitsch, secretary general of Blockchain for Europe, said in November that reopening MiCA at this stage could introduce legal uncertainties and delay authorization processes.

He argued that centralization should wait for "concrete experience and evidence gathered from MiCA's initial years of implementation."

Judith Arnal, board member at the Bank of Spain and associate senior research fellow at the Centre for European Credit Research Institute, said recent attempts to amend the bloc's crypto rules risk "undermining MiCA's credibility as a coherent and globally influential regulatory framework."

The debate echoes a broader tension that has followed MiCA since its adoption. While the framework was designed to give the EU a unified rulebook for digital assets, its implementation has exposed gaps between national approaches — particularly after ESMA questioned Malta's licensing standards for crypto firms last year.