ESMA Finalizes European Union Regulators Guidance on Detecting and Preventing Abuse in Crypto Markets

According to Finance Magnates, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has released the Final Guidelines on Anti-Abuse Regulation of Crypto Asset Markets. The document will be fully implemented within three months after publication as a supporting detail of the MiCA regulations. The guidelines require the regulators of the 27 member states of the European Union to establish a unified market monitoring system, focusing on preventing three types of violations: insider trading, illegal information disclosure and market manipulation, with particular emphasis on the need to strengthen the supervision of social media, blogs and other online platforms to spread misinformation. The document requires professional trading institutions (PPAETs) to deploy automated monitoring tools and establish a hierarchical processing mechanism for suspicious transaction reports (STORs). For cross-border regulation, ESMA explicitly requires national regulators to share regulatory cases of non-European Union crypto companies and regularly report to ESMA on obstacles to cross-border collaboration.
It is worth noting that the guidance was developed without a public consultation. ESMA explained that because Article 125 of the MiCA Regulation is explicitly authorized, and the guidance is only for regulators and not market participants. National regulators are required to submit compliance commitments to ESMA within two months, and if a partial exemption is selected, it is necessary to specify