Daily Observation of Cryptocurrency Policies: The European Central Bank Challenges MiCA Reserve Rules, Calls for the Elimination of the 60% Bank Deposit Red Line and a Complete Ban on Earning Interest from Stablecoins

System Correction: Halt 60% Bank Deposit Mandate to Prevent Traditional Bank Run Resonance

Under the current MiCA regulatory framework, asset reference tokens (ART) and electronic money tokens (EMT) deemed systemically important are mandated to deposit up to 60% of their legal asset reserves in traditional regulated credit institutions (commercial banks).

However, the European Central Bank (ECB) and central banks from multiple EU countries have sharply questioned this "safety design" in their latest response. The central banks pointed out that the crypto market inherently possesses high volatility and pro-cyclical stampede risks. In the event of significant on-chain panic, large-scale redemptions by stablecoin holders would instantly compel issuers to make substantial withdrawal requests from banks, thereby directly transferring the liquidity crisis of stablecoins into the "Unstable Deposits" run risk of the traditional banking system. To this end, the ECB has suggested that regulators urgently amend this rule, requiring issuers to allocate a certain proportion of reserve assets to "highly liquid assets maturing within 1 to 5 working days" (such as short-term sovereign bonds) to achieve physical risk isolation.

Comprehensive Ban on Indirect Earnings: Penetrating Lending, Borrowing, and On-Chain Staking Across All Scenarios

In addition to the revision of reserve asset composition, the ECB has shown an unprecedented tough stance on "earning interest on stablecoins" in this consultation.

The MiCA regulations originally clearly prohibited crypto asset service providers (CASP) from directly paying interest on stablecoins, but the market subsequently derived circumvention models that provided indirect earnings through third-party lending platforms, liquidity staking, or yield aggregators. The ECB has explicitly issued a warning regarding this:

• Return to the essence of payment: Stablecoins, in legal and economic attributes, belong to electronic money, and their core function is to serve as a medium for micro-settlement and commodity payments, not as investment tools for wealth storage and earning interest;
• Expand the ban's boundaries: The central bank supports continuing to prohibit CASP from paying interest on stablecoins and emphasizes that this ban must not be limited to the existing services regulated under MiCA but must penetrate and cover all unregulated activities such as crypto lending, borrowing, and various types of staking. The central banks firmly believe that allowing stablecoins to generate any form of indirect earnings would severely blur the legal boundaries between electronic money and traditional insured bank deposits, misleading ordinary depositors and completely distorting the original fair competitive environment of the EU financial system.

Law Enforcement Blind Spot Warning: Offshore Non-Compliant Platforms Continue to Penetrate, EU Regulation Faces "Substantial Challenges"

While addressing gaps in the legislative provisions, the ECB also candidly pointed out the passive situation the EU currently faces in enforcing unified crypto regulation.

The ECB officially warned that despite MiCA establishing the world's strictest licensing standards, the EU still faces "substantial challenges" in actual cross-border law enforcement. A large number of offshore crypto companies registered in jurisdictions without any EU licensing authorization can still smoothly access and serve retail and institutional clients within the EU through unlicensed internet front-ends and decentralized applications. This cross-border regulatory arbitrage is severely eroding the enforcement effectiveness of MiCA and poses a long-term potential threat to the protection of financial consumer rights within the EU.

Sovereign Central Banks Tighten Liquidity Reins, Stablecoins Move Towards "Zero Interest Pure Channel" Era

Based on the intensive statements from European financial regulators in late September, the ECB's package of recommendations reflects the ultimate bottom line of traditional sovereign currency managers regarding Web3 capital: stablecoins must not erode the central bank's monetary multiplier and the savings foundation of commercial banks. By shifting stablecoin reserve assets from "bank savings" to "ultra-short-term sovereign liquid assets," while extinguishing any seeds of yield arbitrage across the entire chain, European regulators are forcing stablecoin issuers to strip away all financial investment attributes, returning to being a "pure on-chain fiat currency channel" that generates no earnings and incurs minimal friction costs. The ultimate implementation of this policy direction will inevitably reshape the underlying logic of stablecoin business models in Europe and globally over the coming years.

Data Source: https://bbx.com/ Crypto Concept Stock Information Database, compiled based on yesterday's announcements from global listed companies and SEC/TSE disclosure documents.