ECB Seeks to Ditch MiCA Stablecoin Reserve Rule
The European Central Bank (ECB) is pushing to scrap a key rule in the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation that requires stablecoin issuers to hold a significant portion of their reserves in traditional bank deposits.
The current rules, which were implemented as part of MiCA's comprehensive regulatory framework for crypto assets, mandate that non-significant tokens must hold 30% of their reserves in bank deposits and significant tokens must hold 60%.
The ECB argues that this approach creates more problems than it solves, exposing banks to volatile deposits that can vanish overnight if a stablecoin faces a redemption wave. Instead, the ECB proposes shifting the focus from where the money is held to how quickly it can be accessed, with reserve assets needing to mature within one to five working days.
The bank-deposit mandate has been a persistent sore spot for industry groups like Bruegel and Blockchain for Europe, which have flagged concerns about concentration risk and systemic vulnerability tied to individual banking relationships. The ECB's response also raised enforcement gaps, highlighting significant challenges in ensuring compliance across the EU, particularly when non-compliant platforms operating outside European borders can still reach EU users.