EU Lawmakers Adopt Digital Assets Policy Stance After MiCA Transition Ends

The European Parliament has adopted a digital assets report, calling for further assessment of DeFi, staking, crypto lending, and NFTs after the MiCA transition period ended. This report urges the European Commission to evaluate whether activities such as decentralized finance (DeFi), crypto lending and borrowing, staking, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) should be brought more clearly into the EU's regulatory perimeter. It also promotes consistent application of MiCA across member states and warns against national rules that could fragment the bloc's digital asset market.

The vote turns the report into Parliament's formal policy position on digital assets, but it does not directly amend MiCA or create new legal obligations for crypto firms. MiCA's transitional period ended on July 1, requiring crypto-asset service providers that fall under the framework to obtain bloc-wide or national authorization to continue operating across the European Union.

The EU Parliament overwhelmingly approved its digital asset policy stance, reflecting growing pressure in Brussels to address digital asset activities that remain outside MiCA's current scope. While MiCA established licensing and conduct rules for crypto-asset service providers and issuers of certain tokens, lawmakers have continued to debate how the framework should treat DeFi, staking, lending, NFTs, and tokenized financial assets.

The European Commission has already been reviewing whether MiCA should be expanded. In May, it opened a public consultation that sought feedback on potential changes to the framework, including whether additional crypto activities should be covered and whether MiCA's restrictions on interest-bearing stablecoins should be revisited.

The Parliament report approved Tuesday also takes a more supportive tone toward tokenization and euro-denominated stablecoins, arguing that digital assets could support the competitiveness of EU financial markets if regulated consistently across the bloc.

In conclusion, the European Parliament's digital assets report is seen as a significant development in the crypto and blockchain sector. This report is a step towards creating a clearer framework for the regulation of digital assets and provides important insights into how this sector will evolve in the future.

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