EU committee urges review of DeFi, staking and NFTs

The European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) recommended in a report tabled Friday that the European Commission assess whether crypto lending and borrowing, staking, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized finance (DeFi) should be brought within EU regulatory rules. The report will go to the full Parliament for a vote on July 7.

The resolution was drafted by Belgian MEP Johan Van Overtveldt and approved by ECON. If adopted by Parliament, the text would become the chamber’s official position on digital asset policy but would not itself change the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) or create new legal obligations.

The committee asked the Commission to evaluate whether MiCA should be expanded to cover additional crypto activities. The report recommends promoting tokenization across financial services and encourages the development of euro-denominated stablecoins under MiCA. It states euro stablecoins could complement tokenized commercial bank deposits and wholesale central bank digital currencies, help speed cross-border payments and support the euro’s role in international markets.

ECON urged consistent application of MiCA across member states and warned against national rules that could fragment the single market for digital assets.

The European Commission is already reviewing MiCA. In May the Commission opened a public consultation asking whether the framework should be extended to areas such as DeFi, staking, lending, NFTs and tokenized financial assets, and whether the current ban on interest-bearing stablecoins should be revisited. MiCA’s transitional period ends on July 1; after that date crypto-asset service providers generally must hold authorisation under the regulation to operate across the EU.

ECON recently backed separate legislation for a digital euro, noting that regulated private digital money, including stablecoins, could operate alongside a central bank-issued digital currency.

The committee-approved resolution is the result of months of negotiation after Van Overtveldt first presented a draft in February. In 2023 Van Overtveldt called for tighter restrictions on cryptocurrencies following the failures of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and Silvergate Bank, events that were linked to stablecoin reserve exposures; during that period he likened cryptocurrencies to drugs.

Next steps are a plenary vote on July 7. The Commission’s ongoing MiCA review will inform whether it proposes legal changes to bring DeFi, staking, lending or NFTs explicitly under EU regulation.