In its 30 September response to the European Commission’s MiCA review, ESMA proposed stricter safeguards for crypto marketing, cost disclosure, staking, lending and borrowing; stronger powers against unauthorised third-country services and non-compliant stablecoins; and clearer criteria for genuinely decentralised activity.
The regulator also recommended a new regulated crypto-asset service for firms that give users access to DeFi protocols, plus authority for ESMA to issue binding opinions on token classification, including hybrid tokens. Beyond the immediate MiCA review, ESMA called for an EU framework for tokenised securities and on-chain settlement.
FMI WORLD analysis: ESMA is drawing a bridge between crypto conduct regulation and mainstream market infrastructure. A regulated DeFi-access category would move intermediated protocol access into a defined supervisory perimeter, while binding classification opinions could reduce national divergence. The on-chain-settlement proposal points to a wider design question: how tokenised securities can operate across borders without recreating fragmented issuance, trading and settlement silos.
This is a policy recommendation, not an adopted amendment to MiCA or an approved settlement framework.
Crypto-asset service providers, DeFi gateways, stablecoin issuers, tokenisation platforms, exchanges, custodians, CSDs, settlement operators, national competent authorities and firms developing hybrid-token or tokenised-securities products in the European Union.
Watch the Commission’s MiCA review proposals, the legal definition of genuinely decentralised services, the perimeter for regulated DeFi access, treatment of hybrid tokens, and whether the tokenised-securities framework connects to existing EU trading, CSD and settlement rules.
Primary source — ESMA, MiCA review response, 30 September 2026.
FMI WORLD NEWSROOM story reference: FMIWT-20260930-005.