AscendEX Exchange Collapse Hands Europe Its First MiCA Test
The post AscendEX Exchange Collapse Hands Europe Its First MiCA Test appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) launched its first supervisory sweep of licensed crypto firms on July 8, putting custody resilience under EU-wide review. It comes days after MiCA took full effect and popular crypto exchange AscendEX (formerly BitMax) collapsed. ESMA has not connected the two events. However, the timing hands regulators a live example of what failed crypto custody costs users. ESMA Custody Review Targets Crypto’s Weakest Point In its July 8 release, ESMA said the Common Supervisory Action (CSA) will assess how crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) manage custody risks. National regulators will examine a risk-based sample of authorized firms from late 2026 into early 2027. The exercise targets risks specific to distributed ledger technology (DLT). Reviewers will test governance, key and storage management, transaction controls, incident detecti