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ESMA urges more powers to freeze suspected criminal crypto assets

ESMA said current procedures can be too slow to freeze suspicious assets linked to crime, allowing them to disappear.

Reported · Written up by our desk · Regulation

European regulators should be granted additional authority to enforce EU crypto rules, including the power for ESMA to order crypto companies to freeze assets when there are reasonable grounds to suspect a link to crime, according to a statement from the European Securities and Markets Authority, Reuters reports.

ESMA also said national regulators enforcing the EU's Markets in Crypto Assets framework, MiCA, could be given powers to remove scam websites or block unauthorized crypto companies, and that both national regulators and ESMA should be empowered to require freezes in cases involving financial crime, money laundering, or terrorist financing.

ESMA argued that existing lengthy procedures mean requests to freeze suspicious crypto assets are often acted on too late, with the assets having already disappeared, Reuters reported.

The watchdog additionally proposed bans on certain misleading crypto marketing techniques and rules governing third party marketing, while calling for more specific country-level powers to combat crypto wrongdoing.

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