Pooled Order Books in the Crosshairs as EU Regulators Look to Tighten MiCA Oversight
The post Pooled Order Books in the Crosshairs as EU Regulators Look to Tighten MiCA Oversight appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.
Barely one year into the Europe Union’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regime, formulated to deliver a unified regulatory environment across the 30 nations in the European Economic Area, the cracks are beginning to show and there are signs EU regulators are looking to ensure they don’t get any wider. Concerns have already surfaced that some member states are handing out licenses in an overly expedited fashion, and now reports are emerging that the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is preparing to take greater, more centralized control of crypto regulation across the countries within its purview. As yet, there’s little detail about ESMA’s plans, but MiCA policy watchers know where the clues lie. One likely change, which seems technical but could have significant knock-on effects, concerns sharing liquidity outside the EU and the use of unified order books. From a regulatory perspective, a shared order book blurs who is responsible for matching, disclosures, risk management and best execution. From a trader’s perspective, pooling buy and sell orders across a wider population creates greater liquidity, easier transactions and more accurate pricing. ESMA would not comment on shared order books specifically, but said in an email that the position stated in a Q&A earlier this year (which states that MiCA doesn’t permit a crypto trading firm to pool its order book with any non-EU, non-MiCA-regulated trading platforms) “is part of the effort that ESMA has made, and continues to make, to ensure a level playing field in the application of MiCA in the EU.” “Shared order books are something that’s been possible for a long time, and it creates a lot of liquidity,” Nikolai de Koning, a financial services lawyer at Norton Rose, said in an interview. “But ever since the Q&A from ESMA, regulators have been asking applicants and firms…
Filed under: News - @ November 12, 2025 7:33 pm