News, data and analysis on tokenized assets, market design and digital economic systems.
The European Union's executive, holding the sole right to propose EU legislation, and author of both the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation and the DLT Pilot Regulation that lets market infrastructures test tokenized trading and settlement.
The European Union's executive, established in 1958 and based in Brussels, with the sole right to propose EU legislation, responsibility for enforcing it alongside the Court of Justice, and a College of 27 Commissioners supported by policy Directorates-General. It authored the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, adopted in 2023, and the DLT Pilot Regulation (2022/858) that lets market infrastructures test tokenized trading and settlement under waivers from existing rules; two parallel consultations on the MiCA review closed for comment on 31 August 2026. Its market integration and supervision package of 4 December 2025 would transfer direct supervision of significant cross-border crypto-asset service providers and market infrastructures to ESMA, which would remove the incentive for firms to seek a MiCA licence from the most accommodating national authority.
Developments in which European Commission is a named party, newest first.
In a 57-page response to the European Commission's review of MiCA, the European System of Central Banks asks that the prohibition on remunerating holders apply to unregulated crypto borrowing, lending and staking too, naming liquidity mining as an…
Nasdaq, Boerse Stuttgart, Securitize, Axiology, Cashlink and twenty-two others wrote to the Council and the Parliament's economic committee asking for the ceiling on instruments admitted to DLT market infrastructure to be removed, or set at EUR…
A notice of 14 August tells users to stop transacting with sixteen platforms from three stated dates. Fourteen of the names, and the dates against them, reproduce Annex VIII of Council Regulation (EU) 2026/1848 entry for entry.
The Council adds platforms in six jurisdictions to its Russia measures and creates, for the first time, a tool to bar dealings with any crypto provider used by Russia.
The European Parliament approved its position on the digital euro regulation on 9 July 2026, following a committee vote in June.
The European Commission opened a two-part consultation on revising the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation in May 2026, with responses due by 30 August 2026.
The ESCB's 57-page response to the Commission's MiCA review argues the prohibition on remunerating holders should reach unregulated crypto borrowing, lending and staking, naming loyalty benefits and liquidity mining incentives. The same document asks for the requirement that 30 per cent of reserves, or 60 for significant tokens, sit as bank deposits to be removed.
Nasdaq, Boerse Stuttgart, Securitize, Axiology, Cashlink and twenty-two other firms and associations wrote to the Council and the Parliament's economic committee asking for the cap on instruments admitted to DLT infrastructure to be removed, or set at EUR 1,500bn, and opposing a lower threshold for DLT venues than for designated depositories.
A notice of 14 August 2026 tells users not to transact with sixteen crypto platforms from 7, 13 and 23 August. Fourteen of the names and both later dates reproduce Annex VIII of Council Regulation (EU) 2026/1848. The notice cites no authority and no jurisdiction, and says an attempt may breach Binance's terms of use.
The Council of the European Union adopted its 21st package of sanctions against Russia on 23 July 2026, extending the transaction ban to 14 crypto-related service platforms based in Georgia, Panama, the UAE, the Marshall Islands, Kyrgyzstan and Belarus, and introducing for the first time a power to prohibit dealings with crypto-asset service providers of an entire third country. The Council's summary does not name the 14 platforms.
The remaining titles of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 took effect, requiring firms providing crypto-asset services in the European Union to be authorised and supervised. National regimes were replaced by a single set of rules with passporting across member states, subject to transitional arrangements set by each state.
Titles III and IV of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 took effect, making authorisation, reserve and redemption requirements binding on issuers of asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens. The European Banking Authority subsequently urged issuers and distributors to align with the rules, noting that some tokens on offer in the EU were not yet compliant.
The Council gave final adoption to MiCA, described by the Council as the last step in the legislative process following the provisional agreement of 30 June 2022. The regulation covers utility tokens, asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens, and the trading venues and wallet providers that serve them.
The Council presidency and European Parliament negotiators agreed a provisional text of MiCA, covering issuers of asset-referenced and e-money tokens and crypto-asset service providers. The text required stablecoin issuers to hold a liquid reserve at a 1:1 ratio, set a three-month deadline for national authorities to decide on authorisation applications, and gave ESMA a register of non-compliant operators.
The European Commission adopted a digital finance package containing digital finance and retail payments strategies and legislative proposals on crypto-assets and operational resilience, including the proposed Regulation on Markets in Crypto-Assets. The proposal became the basis of the EU authorisation and reserve regime for asset-referenced and e-money tokens that entered application in 2024.
What issued, what settled, what the supervisors changed, with the numbers behind it and a note on what the numbers do not show. One email, Thursday mornings.
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