French government pushes for one agency to regulate crypto across the EU

The government of France has proposed that the European Securities and Market Authority, or ESMA, should regulate digital currency activity across the European Union.

If enacted, this would establish a single authority over the crypto sector across the trading bloc and would create uniform regulations across the union through ESMA, as suggested by the French securities regulator, ​​Autorite des Marches Financiers, or AMF.

The AMF’s proposal states:

“Likewise, granting ESMA the power of direct supervision of public offers of crypto-assets in the EU (scrutiny of white papers) and of crypto-asset service providers would create obvious economies of scale for all national supervisors and concentrate expertise in an efficient way, for the common European benefit.”

Last year, proposals were made for an EU-wide regulatory framework for digital currencies. ESMA is a Paris-based financial regulatory agency that seeks to strengthen investor protection in the EU, improve the functioning of financial markets and foster cooperation between member states.

Related: EU securities regulator warns about risks of ‘non-regulated’ cryptocurrencies

If the AMF’s proposal is adopted, it would look to capitalize on the experience ESMA has in regulating digital currency and would provide legal certainty for digital currency businesses operating across the EU.

Regulating digital currencies has become a major point of discussion for governments across the world. On Monday, the United States Treasury Secretary convened the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets along with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to discuss the regulation of stablecoins.