• Clearly communicate which entity is providing a product or service as well as the regulatory status of each product or service at every stage of the sales process and in all marketing materials and documentation.
• Avoid using regulated status as a promotional tool for unregulated products. Information on a CASP’s website on unregulated activities should be clearly separated from the sections dealing with regulated activities.
• Implement measures like pop-up disclaimers to ensure clients acknowledge the unregulated nature of certain products before proceeding.
• Unregulated entities (whether in the same group as the CASP or not) should not be able to offer services and/or products regulated or unauthorised under MiCA using the same interface.

It is evident that the guidance also seeks to target CASPs belonging to global crypto-exchange groups, where it is often the case that a shared domain or interface is used for multiple entities to provide both services regulated under MiCA and unregulated services.

ESMA urges investors to stay vigilant and be aware that protections under MiCA, such as conflict management, asset safeguarding and complaint handling, do not apply to unregulated products or services.

ESMA’s new release can be found here and the Statement here