Overview

• Citing a speech by executive director Natasha Cazenave, ESMA said many offerings mirror share prices via special‑purpose vehicles or intermediaries and typically exclude voting and dividend rights.
• ESMA called for clear disclosures and safeguards to prevent retail investors from believing tokens confer the same ownership as company shares.
• The authority acknowledged tokenisation’s potential for fractional access and faster trading but stressed most initiatives are still small and largely illiquid.
• ESMA said the European Union should rely on the Markets in Crypto‑Assets framework to deliver regulatory clarity and keep pace with approaches in the United States and the United Kingdom.
• Platforms including Robinhood, Coinbase and Kraken are expanding tokenised stock products in Europe, prompting closer scrutiny from regulators and warnings from the World Federation of Exchanges about market‑integrity risks.