ECB Backs EU Plan for Centralized Crypto Oversight

The European Central Bank has endorsed a European Union proposal to centralize oversight of cryptocurrency providers and key financial market players under the European Securities and Markets Authority, a move aimed at reducing regulatory fragmentation across the bloc.

In an opinion released this week, the ECB expressed full support for the European Commission's plan, which would transfer supervisory responsibilities from national regulators to ESMA, based in Paris. The initiative targets systemically important entities, including cryptoasset service providers, major trading platforms, central counterparties, and securities depositories. These actors often operate across borders, and the ECB argued that national-level supervision creates inconsistencies and blind spots in detecting risks. "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 central bank stated.

The proposal builds on the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, or MiCA, which established uniform rules for crypto activities but left day-to-day oversight to individual member...