From Mandate to Market Advantage: Navigating ESMA’s MiCA Knowledge-&-Competence Guidelines Before They Become a Bottleneck for Crypto-Asset Service Providers

Josef Bergt

2025

When the European Securities and Markets Authority (“ESMA”) released its Final Report on Guidelines for the criteria on the assessment of knowledge and competence under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (“MiCA”) in July 2025, the document may at first glance have seemed like yet another regulatory compendium whose impact could safely be postponed until translations are published and supervisory letters start to circulate; yet, on closer inspection, the text reveals a set of obligations that will, by the force of their practical consequences, reshape how crypto-asset service providers (“CASPs”) recruit, train and continuously monitor their client-facing personnel – and, crucially, how those CASPs signal trustworthiness to investors, counterparties and regulators alike.

In essence, ESMA now requires that any natural person providing information or personalised recommendations on crypto-assets must evidence both an initial stock of structured education and a living process of professional development, calibrated to the complexity of the services rendered; in more concrete terms, 80 hours of targeted qualification plus six months of supervised practice (or, alternatively, a full year of supervised on-the-job learning) are proposed for staff who merely inform, whereas 160 hours of formal instruction combined with a year of supervised advisory work (or an equivalent blend of academic credentials and MiFID-II track record) are put forward for those who advise – thresholds that, albeit labelled “examples”, are bound to become de-facto minima once competent authorities start benchmarking licence applications.

For CASPs in general this means decisions on course design, external certification partners and supervisory hierarchies must be taken now, not when the calendar turns; procrastination would translate into a training crunch, a surge in compliance costs and, in the worst-case scenario, forced off-boarding of revenue-generating staff who fail to “pass the test” in time.

Moreover, MiCA omits familiar MiFID-II investor-protections such as appropriateness testing and product-governance filters, thereby shifting an even heavier burden onto the individual officer’s shoulders; a misinformed or under-trained employee can therefore not be insulated by institutional processes alone, which in turn raises the spectre of supervisory enforcement – and the attendant reputational damage – against both the CASP and its executives for every single instance of sub-par disclosure or unsuitable advice.

Against this backdrop, an early-adopter strategy transforms a seemingly defensive compliance task into a competitive differentiator:

• Investor-facing narrative: demonstrably certified staff reassure sophisticated counterparties.
• Regulatory credibility: proactive alignment with ESMA’s yardsticks shortens authorisation timelines and facilitates cross-border passporting, a decisive edge once MiCA’s licensing race accelerates.
• Talent retention: a clear, well-communicated qualification path turns potential flight risk (high-demand technical specialists) into brand ambassadors proudly displaying their ESMA-aligned credentials.

Bergt Law – situated in Vaduz yet accustomed to operating at the intersection of Swiss, EEA and global fintech frameworks – has already distilled the forthcoming obligations into a multi-layer readiness programme that combines (i) gap-analysis workshops for C-suite and compliance officers, (ii) bespoke training curricula that integrate Liechtenstein’s prudential nuances with ESMA’s conceptual taxonomy, and (iii) a “supervisory manual” helping managers translate abstract knowledge standards into day-to-day coaching logs, thereby creating the auditable trail supervisory authorities will invariably request.

Clients engaging early benefit not only from legal interpretation but from end-to-end execution support: we liaise with accredited education providers, draft employment-contract clauses reflecting probationary supervision, and – drawing upon our experience in financial-services diplomacy – pre-clear documentation approaches with the Financial Market Authority (“FMA”) to avoid late-stage surprises.

Sources:

• ESMA Final Report Guidelines for the criteria on the assessment of knowledge and competence under the Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA), 11 July 2025 ESMA35-1872330276-2380

Key take-aways & core statements

• ESMA’s Final Report operationalises MiCA’s Article 81 obligations by spelling out quantitative and qualitative benchmarks for staff knowledge and competence.
• Informing v. advising distinction matters: 80 h / 6 m versus 160 h / 12 m remains the practical yardstick despite the “example” caveat.
• Absence of MiFID-II safeguards in MiCA amplifies personal-competence risk; failures will directly expose firms to enforcement.
• First-mover compliance strengthens investor confidence, accelerates licensing and supports talent retention – it is therefore a strategic, not merely a legal, imperative.
• Bergt Law provides a turnkey solution covering legal opinion, curriculum engineering, supervisory protocols and FMA dialogue – positioning clients to transform regulatory pressure into market advantage.

For a tailored briefing or a rapid-response workshop, contact the Bergt Law FinTech & Digital Assets team via bergt.law/en. We look forward to turning compliance into your next growth catalyst.