EU CryptoReg Roundup: June 2025

This update is brought to you by our Regulatory & Risk Advisory practice group in Ireland.

Our aim is to keep you informed of the fast-evolving legal landscape, from new legislation and guidance to significant case law and observations.

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Legislation and guidance 

1. The European Commission adopts delegated regulations under MiCAR, relevant to issuers of asset-referenced tokens (ARTs) and e-money tokens (EMTs).

• 5 June 2025 - The European Commission adopts the Delegated Regulation with regard to regulatory technical standards specifying the information in an application for authorisation to offer ARTs to the public or to seek their admission to trading.
  
  
• 27 June 2025 – The European Commission adopts the Delegated Regulation with regard to regulatory technical standards specifying the minimum contents of the liquidity management policy and procedures for certain issuers of ARTs and EMT. 

These delegated regulations are subject to a 3-month scrutiny period before publication in the Official Journal of the EU. They will enter into force on the twentieth day following its publication in the Official Journal of the EU.

2. 10 June 2025 - MiCAR Level 2 texts published in the Official Journal of the EU

The following MiCAR Level 2 texts have been published in the Official Journal of the EU:

• The Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/1140, which addresses the regulatory technical standards specifying records to be kept of all crypto-asset services, activities, orders and transactions undertaken;
  
  
• The Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/1141, which addresses regulatory technical standards specifying the requirements for policies and procedures on conflicts of interest for issuers of ARTs; and
  
  
• The Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/1142, which addresses regulatory technical standards specifying the requirements for policies and procedures on conflicts of interest for crypto-asset service providers and the details and methodology for the content of disclosures on conflicts of interest.

3. 10 June 2025 - EBA publishes No Action Letter on the interplay between PSD2 and MiCAR.

• The EBA issued a No Action letter addressing the interplay between the Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) and MiCAR. CASPs transacting EMTs benefit from a transition period until 2 March 2026, during which specific PSD2 provisions are deprioritised.
  
  
• The EBA advises National Competent Authorities (NCAs) during this intervening period to regard the transfer of crypto assets as a payment service under PSD2 where they entail EMTs and are carried out by the entities on behalf of their clients; to regard the custody and administration of EMTs as a payment service under PSD2; and to regard a custodial wallet as a payment account under the PSD2 where the wallet is held in the name of one or more clients and allows to send and receive EMTs to and from third parties.

4. ESMA publishes Q&As under MiCAR.

• 17 June 2025 - ESMA_QA_2290 - Custody agreements in the exercise of rights attached to crypto-assets
  
  
• According to Article 75(4) of MiCAR, where there are changes to the underlying distributed ledger technology or any other event likely to create or modify a client’s rights, the client shall be entitled to any crypto-assets or any rights newly created on the basis and to the extent of the client’s positions at the time of the occurrence of that change or event. 
  
  
• A CASP may derogate to that principle only where the CASP has obtained from the client prior express and signed consent.
  
  
• ESMA notes that terms of service or any type of non-negotiated standard user agreement between the client and the CASP providing custody services would not be sufficient to demonstrate the express consent of the client required pursuant to Article 75(4) of MiCAR. CASPs must ensure that it is sufficiently clear that the client has consented in an explicit and affirmative way to the specific provision of the terms of service, for example, through a pop-up box. 
  
  
• 17 June 2025 - ESMA_QA_2578 - Commingling clients’ crypto-assets with crypto-assets from other entities of the group when acting as custodian
  
  
• ESMA notes that according to Article 75(7) of MiCAR, CASPs are required to ensure that, on the distributed ledger, clients’ crypto-assets are held separately from their own crypto-assets. In practice, this means that the wallet addresses used for holding clients’ crypto-assets should be different from the wallet addresses used for holding proprietary crypto-assets.
  
  
• Whilst crypto-assets belonging to other entities belonging to the same group should not be regarded as “own crypto-assets” of the CASP for the purpose of Article 75(7) of MiCAR, the fact that a CASP-custodian commingles its clients’ crypto-assets with crypto-assets belonging to entities of the same group introduces conflicts of interest and potential risks for clients.
  
  
• 20 June 2025 – ESMA_QA_2579 - Shared order book model
  
  
• In ESMA’s view, Articles 59, 60 and 63 of MiCAR prohibit an order book managed with entities that are not authorised as CASPs under MiCAR. ESMA understands that this integrated model enables buy and sell orders from different platforms to be combined into one aggregated order book so that multiple trading platforms (including non-EU ones) can access the same liquidity pool, allowing orders from clients across different platforms to be matched. This Q&A does not assess whether other types of shared order books would fully comply with all provisions of MiCAR.

5. 25 June 2025 - ESMA publishes a report on the functioning and review of the DLT Pilot Regime 

• The report contains information about business models, types of DLT financial instruments offered, and technical or legal issues encountered by supervisors to date. It also analyses the types of exemptions requested by DLT market infrastructures and the conditions under which NCAs have granted those exemptions.
  
  
• By way of next steps, the Commission is expected to present its own report to the European Parliament and Council within three months of receipt of the ESMA Report. Depending on the Commission’s recommendations, the DLT Pilot Regime may be extended, amended or converted into permanent regulation.

6. 26 June 2025 – ESMA publishes the Final Report on Technical advice to the European Commission on the review of the UCITS Eligible Assets Directive.

• ESMA notes that crypto-assets are not explicitly eligible for direct investments under the current UCITS framework. However, a case-by-case analysis may lead to a different conclusion taking into account the following: (1) the qualification as a financial instrument under MIFID II (and, where relevant, other EU acts such as the AIFMD); (2) the instrument meeting the criteria and conditions set out in the UCITS Directive and in the UCITS Eligible Asset Directive for being an eligible asset; (3) the UCITS being able to comply with all the requirements set out in the UCITS Directive and other regulations applicable to it.

Other updates

1. 5 June 2025 - Verena Ross' Keynote speech at the Joint ESM-FBF Conference

• Verena Ross, the Chair of ESMA, noted in a speech at the Joint ESM-FBF Conference that it is time to ask whether the current balance between national and EU supervision remains appropriate for all parts of EU capital markets. ESMA is of the view, while for the vast majority of the market it is right that national authorities are and remain in charge, for some key segments, a dial shift is justified. This is particularly the case for certain actors, including crypto-asset service providers. 

2. 13 June 2025 – ESMA Annual Report 2024 

• In ESMA's Annual Report 2024, ESMA summaries the work it has carried out throughout 2024, including with regards to the implementation of MiCAR, crypto-asset market structures, the DLT pilot regime, and decentralised finance. 

3.  23 June 2025 - Speech by Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, at the Hearing of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament

• Christine Lagarde presented on the emerging challenges and opportunities associated with new digital assets, and particularly the developments in stablecoins.
  
  
• Christine Lagarde noted that a digital euro would help safeguard Europe’s bank-based financial and monetary system, as well as addressing some of the risks posed by stablecoins.

4. 30 June 2025 - EBA Annual Report 2024 

• In the EBA's Annual Report 2024, the EBA summaries the work it has carried out throughout 2024, including with regards to the implementation of MiCAR, its supervision of issuers of ARTs and EMTs, guidance on the Funds Transfer Regulation, and tokenisation.

5. 30 June 2025 - EBA Risk Assessment Report  

• The EBA's Risk Assessment Report describes the main developments and trends in the EU/EEA banking sector and provides the EBA outlook on the related main risks and vulnerabilities.
  
  
• As part of this report, the EBA provides an assessment of the risks with regards to the links between EU/EEA banks and digital assets.