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European Banking Authority asks the Commission to weigh bringing crypto lending under MiCA
EBA asks the European Commission to weigh bringing crypto lending, found in at least 16 member states, under MiCA's regulated services. Its formal request is a cost-benefit study first, so suitability tests and leverage caps remain options.
The Investor · Invest desk
What happened
- The European Banking Authority, responding to a Commission consultation on 24 September 2026, called on EU policymakers to consider bringing crypto-asset lending within MiCA.
- Earlier joint work by the EBA and ESMA found intermediated crypto borrowing and lending already taking place in at least 16 member states.
- The legislative options include adding intermediation of crypto borrowing and lending to MiCA's regulated services, or placing specific duties on firms that give access to DeFi protocols.
- As of 1 September 2026, 39 e-money tokens had been issued under MiCA and no asset-referenced token had been authorised.
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Why it matters
- exposure Retail users borrowing or lending through intermediaries in at least 16 member states face no MiCA suitability assessment or leverage limit until the Commission writes one.
- precedent A certification regime for protocols that are not fully decentralised would turn the degree of decentralisation into a legal test, and the Commission would have to define where it begins.
- constraint Until the Commission clarifies MiCA's scope and definitions, firms launching products keep absorbing what the EBA calls avoidable costs and delays at the boundary with MiFID.
MiCA authorises firms by list. A provider gets permission for the crypto-asset services the regulation names, and lending and borrowing were kept off that list on purpose [3]. The EBA's argument rests on licensed firms doing unlisted business. It pointed to the growing role of regulated crypto-asset service providers that give clients access to decentralised-finance lending protocols [5]. It added that easier interfaces and artificial intelligence tools are blurring the line between centralised and decentralised activity [9].
The deferral has run about 21 months, counting from 30 December 2024, when MiCA's main provisions applied [12], to the 24 September publication of the EBA's response [1][13]. Recital 94 said the feasibility and necessity of rules for lending would be assessed later, and the Commission's review is that assessment [2]. The EBA's formal recommendation is a cost-benefit analysis [8]. An analysis comes before draft text, and the response as reported does not propose a date.
The review can end three ways. The Commission can license the intermediation of crypto loans as a new service, or it can confine new duties to firms that facilitate access to DeFi protocols [6]. Or its analysis can reach the other answer Recital 94 allowed and find the rules unnecessary [2].
I'd expect the access-point duties to come first. The firms the EBA describes already hold MiCA authorisation [5], so suitability assessments and leverage limits [7] can be written into the conduct rules of an entity supervisors already oversee, before anyone settles who runs a protocol. The counter-case sits in the EBA's own text. If interfaces are erasing the difference between centralised and decentralised lending [9], duties that stop at the licensed front end cover only the business that passes through it, and a service licence for intermediation covers more. The access-point view is wrong if the Commission goes straight to that licence. The premise that lending rules are coming at all is wrong if the analysis finds them unnecessary.
The rest of the response shows where the EBA is not spending its effort. It judged the current requirements for asset-referenced and e-money tokens broadly appropriate and kept its stronger language for third-country multi-issuer stablecoin schemes, which it rated as posing significant to very significant risks [11]. It also asked for a review of reporting requirements for issuers and service providers, so supervisors get better data for risk monitoring [17].
What to watch
- Whether the reserve review raises or lowers the minimum share of e-money token reserves that must be held as bank deposits.
- The first asset-referenced token authorisation under MiCA, and whether the Commission's review tightens rules for third-country multi-issuer schemes before one arrives.