ESMA Boosts MiCA & Crypto Oversight in 2027 Program

ESMA aims to achieve supervisory convergence for crypto asset service providers (CASPs) under the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework, which is now fully implemented across the bloc. Verena Ross, Chair of ESMA, stated the institution will simplify market supervision through greater use of data and technology.

Nine Priorities for the Year Ahead

ESMA has outlined several concrete actions to enforce MiCA rules and monitor digital asset activity through 2027:

• Standardize supervision of CASPs across the EU under MiCA
• Require periodic reporting of sensitive information from CASPs
• Deploy the first phase of MIDAS, its centralized market surveillance system
• Use MIDAS to identify and prevent potential market abuse cases
• Continue work on tokenization, including guidance and non-binding opinions
• Complete support tasks for the ongoing DLT Pilot Regime
• Review event contracts markets, also known as prediction markets
• Pursue convergence of supervision tasks for these platforms
• Enforce that prediction platforms fall under binary options regulation, requiring MiFID II licenses

MIDAS Targets Market Abuse

ESMA’s 2027 Work Program, detailed in its official document, signals a new phase for crypto regulation in the EU. The focus on supervisory convergence is meant to ensure the rules apply consistently regardless of which member state a CASP operates in.

The MIDAS surveillance system is designed to tackle market abuse directly, aiming to build greater trust and stability across digital asset markets. ESMA has already issued guidelines to combat market abuse under MiCA, published in April 2025, and MIDAS represents the operational follow through on that groundwork.

Tokenization Stays on the Agenda

Tokenization remains a significant area of focus, with ESMA seeing real opportunity for EU capital markets in the technology, according to a press release accompanying the program.

Prediction Markets Fall Under Scrutiny

ESMA’s attention to prediction platforms shows the breadth of its regulatory reach. These platforms will now be required to comply with existing financial instruments directives, treating event contracts as functionally equivalent to binary options rather than a separate, lighter touch category.

ESMA aims to keep EU capital markets efficient, resilient, and attractive to both issuers and investors. Ross closed her remarks noting that ESMA and its staff will remain focused on these goals through the year ahead.

Hashlytics Take

The prediction markets line is the one worth watching closest here. Most crypto regulation coverage focuses on tokens and exchanges, but ESMA quietly classifying event contracts as binary options under MiFID II is a bigger deal than it sounds. It closes a gap that platforms in this space have been operating in for years. The rest of the program reads as ESMA formalizing infrastructure it already committed to with MiCA. MIDAS and CASP reporting requirements are less a new direction than the predictable next step of a framework that was always going to need enforcement teeth eventually.