ESMA sets 2027 MiCA crypto supervision priorities

ESMA will focus its coordination of national crypto supervision in 2027 on operational resilience, outsourcing and firms maintaining sufficient operations inside the bloc. MiCA implementation is deepening. ESMA Chair Verena Ross said Monday that the regulator's focus under MiCA had shifted from rulemaking towards supervision and convergence. Ross said the regulator wants innovation to flourish within a framework that provides clarity for firms, safeguards for investors and confidence in markets. ESMA set out its priorities in its 2027 work program, published Monday. ESMA plans to strengthen coordination among national regulators supervising crypto asset service providers, or CASPs. Its focus areas also include liquidity, reverse solicitation and asset classification. ESMA intends to harmonize CASPs' periodic reporting to national regulators. It plans to 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. ESMA expects the system's first phase to be fully operational in 2027. ESMA previously disclosed plans for a second phase in February. The work program says the second phase would add analytical features and expand the types of available data. Its rollout is scheduled for the fourth quarter, subject to board approval. ESMA plans to feed its supervisory experience into the European Commission's MiCA review, which is expected by June 2027. ESMA also plans to prepare for any legislative proposal that may follow.