EU review pits central banks against industry over MiCA stablecoin perks

Crypto

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The European System of Central Banks backed keeping MiCA's ban on paying interest on stablecoins and asked regulators to extend it to lending, borrowing, staking and other perks such as rewards, fee reductions and loyalty benefits, arguing electronic money should be used for payments not saving. The ESCB also proposed replacing a 30–60% bank deposit reserve floor with a requirement that a share of reserves mature within one to five working days, while ESMA suggested a regulated DeFi access service and proportionate disclosure instead of bans. Industry players including Circle and Aave Labs and over 50,000 EU citizens opposed broader restrictions, raising competitiveness concerns as the commission decides revisions.

European central banks requested broader bans on stablecoin interest payments.