France threatens crackdown on EU-licensed crypto companies

France is threatening to block crypto companies that got licensed in other EU countries from doing business inside its borders, according to Reuters.

The country’s financial regulator, the AMF, said it might start rejecting those “passported” licenses as part of a larger push to hand crypto oversight to the European Securities and Markets Authority, also known as ESMA.

Marie-Anne Barbat-Layani, president of the AMF, said crypto companies are “doing their regulatory shopping all over Europe,” picking countries with looser licensing standards to get easier access across the entire EU.

Under the EU’s MiCA framework, which came into force this year, firms can get licensed in one member state and operate across all 27. France says this setup is now exposing serious gaps in how crypto firms are being watched, and it wants that fixed—fast.

France joins Italy and Austria to demand ESMA control

Marie-Anne told Reuters that France is keeping what she called the “atomic weapon” on the table—the option to flat-out reject licenses granted by other EU countries. “It’s very complex legally and not a very good signal for the single market,” she said, “but it’s still a possibility we hold in reserve.”

She didn’t name any specific companies, but the AMF is clearly not playing around. On Monday, France teamed up with Italy’s Consob and Austria’s FMA to push for ESMA to take the reins on supervising major crypto firms.

In a joint paper, the three regulators warned that national authorities were applying the MiCA rules in very different ways, leaving room for companies to exploit the weakest link.

They wrote that the first few months under MiCA had already shown “major differences” in supervision. They want direct EU-level control to make sure the rules are applied the same way across the board.

And they’re also asking for changes to MiCA itself, including tougher rules for crypto companies operating outside the EU, stronger cybersecurity standards, and better oversight of new token launches.

A spokesperson for ESMA said the agency is “working intensely” to make crypto licensing and supervision consistent. They pointed to a paper the agency released last year that already called for lawmakers to consider giving it power to oversee crypto companies at the EU level.

Malta remains under pressure as France pushes harder

This whole conversation kicked up again earlier this year after ESMA reviewed how Malta’s financial regulator gave a license to a crypto company. The agency found that Malta didn’t do enough to evaluate the risks before handing over the green light, Cryptopolitan reported in July.

Malta defended itself, saying it was proud of being one of the EU’s early adopters of crypto regulation, but the warning still landed.

So far, countries like Luxembourg and Malta have granted licenses to big names. Luxembourg approved Coinbase, while Malta licensed Gemini, the U.S. exchange run by the Winklevoss twins.

That raised eyebrows, especially from France, which hasn’t ruled out challenging these types of licenses if it feels the bar wasn’t set high enough.

Right now, crypto firms are still going through the process of applying for MiCA licenses during a transition phase. No company has been named publicly as a direct target of a possible French rejection, but that threat is clearly on the table.

Marie-Anne said the legal framework for rejecting a license isn’t easy, but France is prepared to go there if needed. And this isn’t some sudden change. France has been pushing for more EU-level oversight for a long time.

ESMA chair Verena Ross has already said she’s open to the idea. But not every EU country agrees. Some are pushing back against giving up national control. That means the fight over who gets to watch crypto firms is far from over.

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