Today, the EU Commission launched its consultation on the “functioning of EU crypto-assets rules” - likely the most important EU crypto consultation since the one in 2019 that ultimately led to MiCA 🇪🇺
A few quick thoughts before even looking closer into the consultation questions:
• MiCA was the world’s first comprehensive crypto framework globally - and the EU deserves credit for its regulatory leadership. But since MiCA was adopted, markets and global regulation have evolved rapidly.
→ It is therefore great that the Commission is proactively reassessing how MiCA can become more fit for today’s market realities and more competitive globally, even before the scheduled formal MiCA review in 2027.
• One obvious and often-discussed example: euro stablecoins remain relatively small globally, with a share of ~0.2% of global stablecoin circulation vs. a ~20% euro share in traditional financial markets and transactions.
→ Europe should have a strong interest in developing a thriving euro stablecoin ecosystem. Not only in the EU, but globally.
• The clearest example of where MiCA has missed its original objective is the Asset-Referenced Token (ART) regime: almost two years after implementation started, there are still 0 (!) regulated ARTs in the EU.
→ This is due to multiple factors, including difficult distinctions between ARTs and financial instruments, divergent national civil law approaches for securities, and requirements that currently make the category commercially unattractive (e.g. issuance caps).
• The consultation itself is broad in scope - covering CASPs and stablecoins, but also topics so far largely outside MiCA’s scope, including staking/lending, DeFi, NFTs, tokenized deposits, perpetuals and prediction markets.
→ MiCA's V1 was just the start. No matter what type of crypto/blockchain service you are building, remaining outside MiCA's V2 scope will likely become increasingly difficult.
• Good to see that both industry and the broader public are invited to provide feedback, ensuring that future developments are grounded in market realities and not narratives.
→ The responses to this consultation will form the basis for MiCA’s formal review next year and any potential legislative proposals. If you do not share your feedback now, do not complain later.
The EU has been the global regulatory leader for crypto-assets over the last years.
Now it is time to ensure Europe also builds one of the world’s most competitive, innovative and globally connected crypto and stablecoin markets.
Link to the EC consulation in the comments.
#EU #MiCA #Crypto #Stablecoins