France wants ESMA to regulate crypto market across Europe
The French government is pushing for a single regulatory agency to handle the regulation of cryptocurrencies in Europe.
The French government has proposed that the European Securities and Market Authority (ESMA) should be tasked with regulating cryptocurrencies across Europe. France wants to establish a single regulatory agency for the rising crypto market across the European Union to make it easier to regulate.
The French securities regulator, Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF), proposed this in a paper published yesterday. If the proposal is approved, they will establish a single authority to regulate the cryptocurrency market across the European Union, creating uniform regulations in the region through ESMA.
The AMF said, “Likewise, granting ESMA the power of direct supervision of public offers of crypto-assets in the EU (scrutiny of white papers) and of crypto-asset service providers would create obvious economies of scale for all national supervisors and concentrate expertise in an efficient way, for the common European benefit.”
Cryptocurrency regulation in Europe remains lacking as several countries still struggle to understand how the market works. There have been proposals in the past to establish an EU-wide regulatory framework for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
The AMF believes that ESMA is right for the task since it is a financial regulatory agency created to strengthen investor protection in the EU, boost partnership between member states and improve the functioning of the various financial markets.
ESMA is already vastly experienced in regulating the financial markets. Hence, assigning the role of the crypto market regulator in Europe would see the agency bring its wealth of experience to the table.
Cryptocurency regulation is gaining steam globally. Yesterday, United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets that they need to come up with proper regulation for stablecoins.
