Making Europe’s Crypto Markets More Competitive

The global race to lead in digital assets, to attract innovation, investment and talent, and to capture the economic benefits that come with them, is still very much open. The EU moved early with MiCA, giving the bloc a first-mover advantage and establishing an early global benchmark for clear, harmonised crypto rules.

The European Commission’s recently announced review of MiCA is an important opportunity.  It gives the Commission the chance to use the experience of MiCA in practice, to refine the framework with targeted improvements, and develop a genuinely best-in-class rulebook. The Commission can also assess how other jurisdictions are approaching many of the same questions, as progress continues in numerous jurisdictions including in the United States with the Clarity Act. 

For Coinbase, the EU  is a critical market. In June 2025, Coinbase secured its MiCA licence in Luxembourg, enabling us to offer a full suite of crypto products across all 27 EU member states. But its strong position cannot be taken for granted. If the EU  wants to remain competitive, it should use this review to position the bloc competitively in the next phase of digital asset regulation and as an opportunity to deepen innovation and investment.

One of the clearest opportunities is stablecoins. A revised MiCA should recalibrate the rules on reserves, rewards and the multi-issuance model.

On reserves, the current requirement to hold 30–60% in commercial bank deposits concentrates rather than diversifies risk. Allowing a greater share to be held in high-quality sovereign assets would reduce systemic vulnerability without compromising safety.

On rewards, MiCA should allow non-interest incentives such as cashback, loyalty points and other activity-based rewards. These are standard features across payments, are separate from the backing assets, and matter for customer retention and competition.

The EU should improve the multi-issuance model. Access to deep global stablecoin liquidity is essential for efficient crypto markets, and the review should support measures that improve reserve sizing and supervisory cooperation across jurisdictions rather than pushing activity into silos.

MiCA also needs to reflect the reality that DeFi is already here. The real question is whether EU users can access it through regulated intermediaries. Restrictions on DeFi integrations would not prevent participation in decentralised markets, but would remove the ability of regulated firms to provide a structured and supervised gateway to them. The EU has an opportunity to develop a framework that enables access while addressing any risks.

Any move to limit order routing to EU-only venues would fragment liquidity, widen spreads and directly harm both retail and institutional investors. In crypto markets, where liquidity is distributed globally across multiple venues, preserving access to deep pools of liquidity is essential for delivering the best outcomes to users.

Some jurisdictions, most notably the US, are embracing DeFi as part of the tokenisation of capital markets, and the EU should remain globally competitive by being open to the same opportunity.

That means exploring how DeFi can support the development of capital markets and ensuring the rulebook is equipped for that future. The review should also help clarify how tokenised MiFID instruments are treated, including on custody, and how DeFi protocols interact with capital markets rules. If the EU  is serious about tokenisation, MiCA and MiFID need to work as two sides of the same coin.

The EU got an important first move right with MiCA. The task now is to make sure the framework evolves in a way that protects consumers, supports innovation and keeps its crypto markets globally competitive.