Niall Esler
Partner
Ireland
Welcome to our EU crypto update - a roundup of key Irish and EU legislative and regulatory developments shaping the crypto-asset sector.
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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Key developments this month include:
- Central Bank Fitness and Probity updates, including new PCF role for CASPs.
- Council and Parliament reach provisional agreement on payments package.
- Central Bank enforcement action - first Irish enforcement outcome in the crypto sector.
- ESMA materials on smooth implementation of MiCAR data standards and format requirements.
- ESRB recommendations on third-country multi-issuer stablecoin schemes published in the Official Journal.
In next month's edition we will provide an update on the European Commission's Market Integration Package which, amongst other things, proposes to move CASP authorisation, monitoring and supervision from national competent authorities to ESMA.
Legislation and guidance
Ireland
Central Bank Fitness and Probity updates
25 November 2025 – The Central Bank of Ireland (the Central Bank) has published updated fitness and probity (F&P) guidance and revised standards.
- The Central Bank has published the following F&P documents:
- Feedback statement on CP160 on amendments to the Fitness & Probity regime;
- Updated F&P Guidance; and
- Revised F&P Standards.
- The revised F&P Standards consolidate the F&P Standards 2023 and the F&P Standards for Credit Unions 2024 into one set of F&P Standards.
- The Updated F&P Guidance confirms the introduction of a new Pre-Approval Controlled Function (PCF) role, the Head of Safeguarding, for Crypto-Asset Service Providers (CASPs).
- In its Feedback Statement, the Central Bank notes that it will issue amending regulations to reflect this change.
- The Central Bank will apply its in-situ process for any individuals occupying such a role at the time the amended regulations become applicable. New appointments to this role will be subject to the PCF approval process.
Europe
Council and Parliament reach provisional agreement on payments package
27 November 2025 – The Council of the EU and European Parliament announced a provisional political agreement on the EU payments package.
- The payments package includes proposals for the Payment Services Regulation (PSR) and the Third Payment Services Directive (PSD3).
- The PSR aims to harmonise payment services and strengthen fraud prevention across the EU. The negotiators agreed to simplify the authorisation procedure for payment institutions. CASPs already authorised under MiCAR, would be subject to a streamlined procedure while keeping appropriate risk controls and providing only services specified in the application.
- By way of next steps, the Council and the European Parliament will continue working on the technical elements of the package before final adoption by the co-legislators. It is expected that the PSR and PSD3 will be published in the Official Journal of the EU in H1 2026.
Third-country multi-issuer stablecoin schemes
21 November 2025 – The European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) Recommendation C/2025/6342 on third-country multi-issuer stablecoin schemes published in the Official Journal of the EU.
- Primarily, the ESRB recommends that the Commission does not consider third-country multi-issuer stablecoin schemes as being permitted within the current MiCAR framework.
- Should the Commission consider otherwise, the schemes should be subject to a dedicated framework providing for adequate safeguards such as those described in the other recommendations made by the ESRB. These are aimed at ensuring consistent measures across the EU to mitigate effectively the identified financial stability risks.
- By 31 December 2025, the relevant authorities are requested to deliver to the ESRB and to the Council a report on the implementation of this recommendation.
DAC8 Implementing Regulation published in Official Journal
26 November 2025 – The Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2263 (the Implementing Regulation) has been published in the Official Journal of the EU.
- DAC8 provides for automatic exchange of information on crypto-assets between EU countries. The Implementing Regulation amends Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2378 as regards the standard forms and computerised formats for the mandatory automatic exchange of information on reportable crypto-assets.
- DAC8 and the Implementing Regulation will enter into force on 1 January 2026, expanding tax transparency to crypto-asset transactions.
- Reporting CASPs are required to conduct due diligence on customers and submit reports covering asset and transaction data, with first returns due by 31 May 2027 covering the 2026 period.
- For more information on the Irish implementation of DAC8 see our EU CryptoReg roundup: October 2025.
ESMA MiCAR materials
28 November 2025 – The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has issued a statement to support the smooth implementation of MiCAR data standards and format requirements.
- This statement summarises the key obligations, timelines, and technical specifications for the following MiCAR requirements:
- The format of order-book records for CASPs operating trading platforms;
- The manner in which CASPs operating a trading platform are to present transparency data;
- The data standards requirements for CASPs specifying records to be kept of all crypto-asset services, activities, orders and transactions undertaken; and
- The format and data standards requirements for MiCAR white papers.
- The statement aims at providing further practical guidance to market participants in the above areas.
28 November 2025 – ESMA published MiCAR order book and records keeping message specifications.
- ESMA published the JSON file specification under the regulatory technical standards concerning order book records. The JSON schema have been developed by ESMA based on ISO 20022 methodology.
- Considering the need to ensure an orderly transition to the new standards and format of order book records, there is a 6-month lead time granted from the time of publication.
Other updates
Ireland
Central Bank enforcement action and Financial Stability Review
6 November 2025 – The Central Bank has fined Coinbase Europe Limited.
- The Central Bank announced it has fined Coinbase Europe Limited €21,464,734 for breaching its anti-money laundering (AML) and counter terrorist financing (CFT) obligations with respect to transaction monitoring as required by the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010 (the CJA 2010) between 23 April 2021 and 19 March 2025.
- During this period, Coinbase Europe operated as a virtual asset service provider, registered with the Central Bank for AML/CFT purposes under the CJA 2010. This is the first Central Bank enforcement outcome in the crypto sector.
17 November 2025 – The Central Bank has published its second Financial Stability Review of 2025.
- The review notes that the total market value of digital assets is growing rapidly and as their interconnectedness with traditional financial markets increases, so do their implications for financial stability.
- The review highlighted that stablecoins play a large role in the crypto sector and that, although they still make up a small percentage of the overall Treasury market, stablecoin assets warrant monitoring for run risk that could potentially lead to a fire sale of Treasuries, especially if it coincided with other adverse developments in money market.
Europe
ESMA and EBA statements on crypto supervision and tokenisation
7 November 2025 – Natasha Cazenave (ESMA Executive Director) gave a speech at the EFAMA Investment Management Forum.
- In this speech, Natasha Cazenave noted that ESMA envisions targeted centralization of supervision at the EU level, where there is significant scope for increased cross-border activity, such as with CASPs. A more decisive role for ESMA could also translate into enhanced convergence, providing for a smoother and joint decision-making amongst ESMA and the most relevant national competent authorities for some cross-border issues.
- On the topic of tokenisation, also it was noted that while tokenisation has seen limited adoption so far, with tokenised funds still representing a small portion of global funds (less thank 0.1%), they are set to expand fast with the top 10 tokenised funds (mostly money market funds) almost doubling in size in the first half of 2025.
- Natasha Cazenave noted that as regulators and supervisors ESMA needs to make sure that rules do not unduly restrict these developments where they can bring benefits, while being aware of potential new or emerging risks, for example risks inherent to the underlying technology.
17 November 2025 – Verena Ross (ESMA Chair) gave an opening statement at the 2025 ECON Annual Hearing.
- In this statement from Verena Ross, it was emphasised that ESMA's position on crypto-assets is clear: crypto-assets remain very risky.
- It was also noted that ESMA is working closely with the European Banking Authority (EBA) on stablecoins and ESMA's focus is supporting the collective supervisory efforts under MiCAR. This includes monitoring unauthorised activity and conducting market surveillance in order to prevent regulatory arbitrage and uphold market integrity within the EU.
17 November 2025 – José Manuel (chairperson of the EBA) gave a speech at the Committee on ECON.
- In this speech, José Manuel noted that the EBA has been coordinating the implementation of MiCAR and preparing for the supervision of issuers of significant Asset-Referenced Tokens (ARTs) and e-Money Tokens, with the expectation that they will be designating the first significant ARTs early next year.
ECB publications
17 November 2025 – Piero Cipollone (Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB)) delivered an introductory statement at the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament.
- In this statement, Piero Cipollone provided an update on the digital euro.
- The statement addresses a number of questions regarding the ECB digital euro project, including (i) why do we need another payment solution; (ii) are you not putting banks' business models at risk; (iii) would the digital euro replace cash; and (iv) could it be used to control people and interfere with their privacy?
- The ECB will continue to support the legislative deliberations with technical input and provide transparent updates on the progress of the digital euro project. To that end, the statement was published with additional supporting material as an annex.
25 November 2025 – Piero Cipollone delivered a presentation on tokenisation at the Central Bank’s Financial System Conference.
- In this presentation, Piero Cipollone discussed the role of tokenised central bank money and gave an overview of the Eurosystem projects of Pontes and Appia.
26 November 2025 – The ECB published its Financial Stability Review.
- The ECB Financial Stability Review contains a chapter on stablecoins and provides statistical data on the market capitalisation of euro-denominated MiCAR-authorised stablecoins and reserve assets of stablecoin issuers.
26 November 2025 – The ECB published its Financial Stability Review.
- The ECB Financial Stability Review contains a chapter on stablecoins and provides statistical data on the market capitalisation of euro-denominated MiCAR-authorised stablecoins and reserve assets of stablecoin issuers.
