ESMA

Subscribe to ESMA via RSS
Abstract financial charts with upward arrow on a blue background. 3D Rendering

Crypto custody services under the microscope: EU regulators turn their attention to compliance with digital operational resilience rules.

By Stuart Davis, Gabriel Lakeman, and Alain Traill

On 8 July 2026, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) announced the launch of a Common Supervisory Action (CSA) focusing on the digital operational resilience of cryptoasset service providers (CASPs), with a particular emphasis on custody services.

ESMA has framed the initiative as a response to its risk-based supervisory priorities, which…

By James Inness and Stuart Davis

Following our 7 November 2017 blog “Europe as a Hub for Initial Coin Offerings”, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published two statements on Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). The statements underline ESMA’s interest in ICOs as a means to raise capital for enterprises, particularly given their rapid growth in recent months, as well as highlighting ESMA’s concerns for investor protection given the potentially high risks to investors.

Interestingly, one of the issues ESMA has focussed on is the requirement for ICO issuers intending to raise capital in the EU to comply with the EU Prospectus Directive in circumstances in which the ICO is structured as a security offering (as opposed to a non-security utility offering). ESMA acknowledges that the exemptions from the requirement to publish an approved prospectus under the EU Prospectus Directive would potentially be available to ICO issuers in the same manner as for issuers in relation to other types of securities offering, as noted in Latham’s earlier blog.