# Dutch watchdog wants tougher EU supervision of crypto

> The Dutch financial markets regulator AFM says the EU's crypto rules have helped, but consumers still face risks, with about one in eight Dutch people now owning crypto assets.

Economy · published 2026-11-10 12:34 · updated 2026-11-10 12:56 · https://nlnow.nl/a/dutch-watchdog-wants-tougher-eu-supervision-of-crypto/

The AFM, the Dutch financial markets regulator, is calling for stronger and more centralised European supervision of the crypto market. It says the EU crypto regulation MiCAR has moved the market an important step towards maturity a year and a half after it took effect, but consumer protection is still a challenge and could be tightened.

The stakes are growing for people in the Netherlands. The AFM says about one in eight Dutch people now own crypto assets. Most invest limited amounts, it says, but the risks remain considerable: crypto assets are often highly volatile and many consumers struggle to understand the products.

The AFM argues that the cross-border nature of the market requires further harmonised rules and supervision. It wants a bigger role for the European authority ESMA and consistent application of MiCAR across the EU. Only forward-looking, central European supervision can ensure that innovation goes together with a high level of consumer protection, it says.

## Gaps in the rules

Staking, lending and certain decentralised finance (DeFi) services are now common in the crypto sector but fall wholly or partly outside MiCAR. The AFM says this leaves out specific rules on liquidity management, risk management and the use of collateral. "We think services such as staking, lending and certain DeFi should also come under supervision," the AFM says.

MiCAR also contains no product-governance obligations to ensure products meet consumers' needs, as apply to many other financial products, the AFM says. Consumers are regularly confronted with fraudulent or misleading crypto assets, such as pump-and-dump schemes, it adds. The large supply of assets and the ease of creating new tokens increase those risks.

The regulator also says that mixing new services such as crypto trading with traditional ones such as investing or payments can confuse consumers, because each is supervised to a different degree. In a competitive market, it says, providers sometimes lose sight of their customers' interests.

For more than half of Dutch crypto owners, the total value of their holdings is under €1,500, the AFM says. Bitcoin is the most popular asset and is held by more than half of them. The regulator notes that the sharp fall in crypto prices since October 2025 does not seem to be holding back the growth in the number of owners.

## Background

- **AFM (Autoriteit Financiële Markten)**: The Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets, which supervises financial markets and how financial firms treat consumers and investors.
- **MiCAR (Verordening markten voor cryptoactiva)**: MiCAR is the EU Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, a single set of rules for crypto-assets across all EU member states. It sets requirements for issuers of crypto-assets and for companies that offer crypto services, such as trading platforms and custodians, who need authorisation to operate in the EU. It also includes rules on stablecoins and on informing consumers, so the same protections apply across the Netherlands and the rest of the EU.

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