ESMA Wants to Focus on Crypto Regulation in 2020

The European Securities and Markets Authority has claimed in their 2020-22 focus announcement that the regulator will try to integrate cryptocurrency regulation in the European markets on a much more concentrated level.

Although the announcement didn’t give too much information on what the authority will be focusing on when implementing a joint regulation, several experts have already concluded that there will not be any bans or restrictions coming to the industry.

Most of the fears were stemming from previous experiences with the regulator banning binary options and restricting CFDs to a point where they were unprofitable. However, with the case of cryptocurrencies, it’s not the issue of service providing ethics, but the overall issue with cybersecurity and money laundering from retail clients themselves.

Therefore, it’s likely that ESMA will push the whole ID disclosure regulation to a whole new level across the EU, even more so than local regulatory authorities have done in separate member states. Considering that this is a focus for 2020-22 this year may not see the full implementation of ESMA’s regulatory frameworks but rather a test.

Similar approaches were done about CFD restrictions where the authority would introduce a temporary fix and update it as it approached the deadline, which would then be rescheduled all the time.

Image courtesy of Asset News