EU Parliament Says "Now Do DeFi" — MiCA Sequel Loading 🎬

The European Parliament on Tuesday formally adopted its position paper on digital assets, outlining how the bloc should approach crypto regulation once the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework is fully in force. The report, titled "Digital assets – challenges for the competitiveness and integrity of the European Union's financial system," calls on the European Commission to evaluate whether decentralized finance (DeFi), crypto lending and borrowing, staking and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) should be brought more clearly within the EU's regulatory perimeter. It also urges consistent application of MiCA across member states and warns against national rules that could fragment the bloc's digital asset market. The vote, which was overwhelmingly approved, makes the document Parliament's official policy stance on digital assets but does not directly amend MiCA or impose new legal obligations on crypto firms.

The report reflects continued debate in Brussels over digital asset activities that fall outside MiCA's current scope. While MiCA established licensing and conduct rules for crypto-asset service providers and issuers of certain tokens, lawmakers have pressed for clarity on how the framework should handle DeFi, staking, lending, NFTs and tokenized financial assets. MiCA's transitional period ended on July 1, requiring crypto-asset service providers covered by the framework to obtain bloc-wide or national authorization to continue operating across the European Union.

The European Commission has already been reviewing whether MiCA should be expanded. In May, it opened a public consultation seeking feedback on potential changes to the framework, including whether additional crypto activities should fall under its scope and whether MiCA's restrictions on interest-bearing stablecoins should be revisited. The Parliament report approved Tuesday adopts a more supportive tone toward tokenization and euro-denominated stablecoins, arguing that digital assets could bolster the competitiveness of EU financial markets if regulated consistently across the bloc.

Lawmakers said the paper is intended to inform future legislative work and Commission reviews rather than serve as a binding measure. The Parliament's position is non-binding and does not amend MiCA, but it signals the direction that EU policymakers may pursue as they assess gaps in the existing framework. The Commission has not yet announced a timeline for any follow-up legislative proposals responding to the consultation or the Parliament's report.