Malta’s cryptocurrency licensing course of has come beneath scrutiny from the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), Europe’s major supervisory physique overseeing the Markets in Crypto-Belongings Regulation (MiCA).
The ESMA on Thursday released a evaluation of the authorization strategy of crypto asset service suppliers (CASPs) by Malta’s Monetary Companies Authority (MFSA), highlighting a number of shortfalls and proposing a set of suggestions.
Regardless of saying the MFSA met sure expectations in supervisory setup and staffing, the EU watchdog stated the Maltese authorities solely “partially met expectations” within the authorization course of for an unidentified CASP.
Following the evaluation, the ESMA’s advert hoc Peer Evaluate Committee (PRC) really useful that MFSA “assess materials points that have been pending on the date of the authorization or that haven’t been adequately thought-about on the authorization stage.”
Malta evaluation launched in April
The report comes over a yr after the MiCA framework came into force on June 29, 2024, turning into a significant milestone within the EU’s strategy to regulating digital belongings.
Since MiCA is geared toward offering a unified and consistent legal framework for crypto within the EU, the regulator highlighted that MiCA’s authorization strategy applies to all Nationwide Competent Authorities (NCAs).
In December 2024, the European Banking Authority’s Board of Supervisors (BoS), the company’s fundamental decision-making physique, agreed on the adoption of a coordinated strategy for CASPs authorizations.
“Following a sequence of occasions, the BoS of ESMA determined, in April 2025, to launch a peer evaluation on the authorization and early supervision of a CASP by the Malta Monetary Companies Authority,” the report famous, including:
“Though the peer evaluation focused one NCA, nonetheless, it goals to foster supervisory convergence and enhance the supervisory practices of all NCAs, at a time when consistency throughout NCAs in authorization and setting supervisory expectations is essential.”
MFSA’s authorization fell wanting expectations
The ESMA’s PRC, the committee that carried out the peer evaluation course of into MFSA, reported that MFSA has constructed a “good degree of experience on this sector and has adequate supervisory assets for CASP authorizations and supervision.”
PRC’s evaluation involved three fundamental areas: the supervisory settings and assets, the authorization course of and the supervisory evaluation and use of satisfactory powers.
Whereas totally assembly the supervisory settings necessities and largely assembly the supervisory evaluation guidelines, the report stated the MFSA has solely “partially met expectations” related to the “authorization of the particular CASP.”
Malta’s MFSA “wants to observe carefully the expansion in authorization functions” and determine and modify supervisory practices in a well timed method, the PRC stated.
Associated: Bybit, OKX expand crypto services in Europe under MiCA
It reiterated that each one the EU state NCAs have to think about this problem and strictly observe the requirements:
“As a result of novelty and nature of those sort of entities in addition to the inherent dangers of their enterprise mannequin, the PRC recommends to all NCAs, presently within the strategy of authorising CASPs, to pay explicit consideration to sure points of the authorization.”
4 MiCA CASPs licensed by MFSA
For the reason that ESMA didn’t disclose the identify of the CASP in query of the MFSA’s authorization misstep, it’s unclear whether or not the PRC’s suggestion to evaluate the difficulty would influence any issued licenses.
“It’s onerous to remark with out realizing precisely what the unresolved points have been,” XReg consulting associate Nathan Catania instructed Cointelegraph.
“I wouldn’t anticipate any revocation or re-evaluation primarily based on the report,” he stated.
According to the MFSA register of licensed CASPs working beneath MiCA, there are presently 4 registered firms: BP23, buying and selling as Bitpanda; Foris Dax, buying and selling as Crypto.com; Okcoin Europe, buying and selling as OKX; and Zillion Bits, buying and selling as ZBX.
In April, Malta’s Monetary Intelligence Evaluation Unit fined Okcoin Europe $1.2 million after detecting sure violations courting again to 2023. The penalty got here quickly after the MFSA granted a MiCA license to OKX in January 2025.
Cointelegraph approached ESMA and MFSA for remark relating to the evaluation’s potential influence on the MiCA-licensed firms in Malta, however had not obtained a response by publication.
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