The European Commission has proposed expanding the powers of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), raising concerns about the centralization of EU licensing approvals and demonstrating a deeper institutional ambition for the capital market structure.
According to Cointelegraph, the Commission released a package of proposals on Thursday, suggesting that ESMA be granted "direct supervisory authority" over key market infrastructures, including crypto asset service providers (CASPs), trading venues, and central counterparties (CCPs).
However, this proposal has drawn attention from the industry. Faustine Fleuret, head of public affairs at the decentralized lending protocol Morpho, stated that ESMA's jurisdiction would cover the supervision and licensing of all cryptocurrency and fintech companies in Europe, potentially slowing down the approval process and hindering the development of startups.
Fleuret pointed out, "What concerns me more is that this proposal places ESMA in charge of both the authorization and supervision of CASPs, rather than just supervision."
The proposal still requires approval from the EU Parliament and Council, with negotiations currently ongoing between the two parties.
If the proposal is ultimately approved, ESMA's role in regulating the EU capital markets will be more akin to the centralized regulatory framework of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This concept was first introduced by European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde in 2023.
Elisenda Fabrega, chief legal officer of the asset tokenization platform Brickken, told Cointelegraph that this proposal to "concentrate" regulatory authority in a single institution aims to address the discrepancies in regulatory practices and uneven licensing approvals across countries, but it also carries the risk of slowing down the entire cryptocurrency industry's development.
She stated, "Ultimately, the effectiveness of this reform lies not in its legal form, but in the institutional execution capability," including ESMA's operational capacity, independence, and cooperation channels with member states.
This broader proposal aims to enhance the competitiveness of the EU capital markets, creating more wealth for EU citizens and allowing it to compete with the U.S. capital markets.
According to Visual Capitalist data, the U.S. stock market has a market capitalization of approximately $62 trillion, accounting for 48% of the global stock market, while the total market capitalization of the EU stock market is about $11 trillion, representing only 9% of the global share.
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