Fidelio Tata, Ph.D.⎢MiCA CASP CPD Training

MiCA CASP CPD Training:
ESMA Knowledge & Competence Guidelines Compliant Courses

BACKGROUND: ESMA35-24871704-2922 GUIDELINES.

On 11 July 2025, the Euro­pean Se­cu­ri­ties and Mar­kets Autho­ri­ty (ESMA) pub­lished guide­lines for the criteria of the assess­ment of know­led­ge and com­pe­tence under the Markets in Crypto Assets Re­gu­la­tion (MiCA). These guide­lines sug­gest mi­ni­mum qua­li­fi­ca­tion, ex­perience and con­ti­nuous pro­fessio­nal de­velop­ment (CPD) thres­holds for staff pro­vi­ding in­for­ma­tion or ad­vice on cryp­to-asset and cryp­to-asset ser­vi­ces to clients. The trans­la­tions into all EU official lan­guages has been pub­lished on ESMA’s web­site on January 28, 2026 (see here). The publi­ca­tion of the trans­lations marks the start of a two-month period during which the com­pe­tent autho­ri­ties must notify ESMA whether they comply or intend to comply with the guide­lines. The guide­lines will apply on July 28, 2026 (six months after the trans­la­tions were pub­lished on the ESMA web­site).

WHAT LEVEL OF PRO­FESSIO­NAL QUALI­FI­CATION IS EX­PEC­TED OF CASP STAFF?

ESMA expects, among other routes for staff to gain the appro­pri­ate know­led­ge, a mini­mum of 80 hours of pro­fessio­nal quali­fi­cation which CASP’s staff giving in­for­ma­tion about cryp­to-as­sets or cryp­to-as­set ser­vices and a minimum of 160 hours of pro­fession­al quali­fi­cation which CASP’s staff giving ad­vice about cryp­to-assets or cryp­to-asset ser­vi­ces should ob­tain prior to pro­vi­ding such in­for­ma­tion. This should be de­monstra­ted by pas­sing an assess­ment con­duc­ted either by the cryp­to-asset ser­vice pro­vider it­self or by an ex­ter­nal body.

WHAT LEVEL OF CON­TINU­OUS PRO­FESSIO­NAL DE­VELOP­MENT (CPD) IS EX­PEC­TED OF CASP STAFF IN ORDER TO MAIN­TAIN AND UP­DATE THEIR KNOW­LED­GE AND COM­PE­TENCE ON AN ON­GOING BASIS?

ESMA expects that CASPs de­ter­mine the ade­quate mi­ni­mum num­ber of CPD hours per year that staff pro­vi­ding in­for­ma­tion on cryp­to-assets or cryp­to-asset ser­vices should com­plete, based on the na­ture of these assets and ser­vices. Even staff pro­vi­ding in­for­ma­tion or ad­vice on a limit­ed range of the least com­plex cryp­to-assets or cryp­to-asset ser­vices should com­plete 10 or 20 hours of CPD, re­spec­tive­ly. CPD should in­clude an assess­ment of par­ti­ci­pants' know­ledge and com­pe­tence.

WHY SHOULD THE CPD BE TAILORED TO THE TRAIN­ING NEEDS OF CASPs?

ESMA con­firms that staff pro­vi­ding in­for­ma­tion must de­monstra­te the ne­cessary know­ledge and com­pe­tence only for the cryp­to-assets and cryp­to-asset ser­vices offered by the CASP, but not for cryp­to-assets that are tech­ni­cal­ly with­in the scope of the cryp­to-asset ser­vice but are not actual­ly offered by the CASP in any of its ser­vices. There­fore, CPD must be adapt­ed to each CASP’s spe­ci­fic busi­ness model. The exist­ing know­led­ge and com­pe­tence of staff mem­bers pro­vi­ding in­for­ma­tion on cryp­to-assets or cryp­to-asset ser­vices should also be taken into con­si­de­ration, as well as appli­ca­ble re­gu­la­tory chang­es, key mar­ket de­velop­ments and newly emerg­ing tech­no­lo­gies.

WHY SHOULD CASPs START PLAN­NING THEIR CPD PRO­GRAMS NOW AL­READY?

The guidelines will apply on July 28, 2026. How­ever, im­ple­ment­ing a firm-wide CPD pro­gram re­quires some three to six months’ lead time for pre­pa­ra­tion. This in­cludes identi­fy­ing staff who needs train­ing, sche­du­ling train­ing ses­sions (both on-site and webi­nar-based) and pre­pa­ring train­ing ma­terial.

HOW IS THE CRYPTO LITERACY OF CASP STAFF REVIEWED?

ESMA re­quires CASPs to carry out an in­ter­nal or ex­ter­nal re­view at least once a year of their staff mem­bers’ de­velop­ment and ex­perience needs. They must also assess re­gu­la­tory de­velop­ments and take the neces­sary action to com­ply with appli­cable re­quire­ments. The re­view should also en­sure that staff have the appro­pri­ate quali­fi­cations and main­tain and up­date their know­ledge and com­pe­tence through con­tinuous pro­fessional de­velop­ment or training, in line with the re­le­vant mi­ni­mum guidance set out in ESMA guide­lines. It should also in­clude spe­cific train­ing be­fore any new type of cryp­to-asset or cryp­to-asset ser­vice is offered by the cryp­to-asset ser­vice pro­vider.

MY OFFER: ESMA MICA KNOWLEDGE AND COMPETENCE TRAINING FOR CASPs
(ESMA35-24871704-2922).

Drawing on over 30 years of pro­fessional teaching ex­perience and my previous CPD pro­grams de­livered at a CASP in Ger­many in 2024/25, I can assist with the plan­ning, de­sign and exe­cu­tion of be­spoke pro­fessional quali­fi­cations and con­tinuous pro­fessional de­velop­ment train­ing pro­grams. This in­cludes:

• The assess­ment of which staff members fall with­in the train­ing scope set out by ESMA;
• The assess­ment of staff’s current level of quali­fi­cation and know­ledge of, for example, re­gu­la­tory changes, new cryp­to-assets and ser­vices avail­able on the market through exams;
• De­sign­ing train­ing in the form of on-site train­ing and work­shops in­vol­ving re­le­vant de­part­ment re­pre­senta­tives;
• Designing of CASP-spe­cific and up­dated train­ing material;
• The execu­tion of train­ing (as speaker and/or modera­tor);
• Creating a regulatory audit trail;
• Proof of con­ti­nuous pro­fessio­nal de­velop­ment (CPD).