TLDR
The European Central Bank wants MiCAs stablecoin reserve rules rewritten so issuers focus on liquidity of assets, not fixed deposit percentages in commercial banks.
- ECB and EU central banks propose scrapping MiCAs 3060 percent bank-deposit floors and replacing them with liquidity-based maturity thresholds for stablecoin reserves.
- The change is meant to reduce bank liquidity risk during stablecoin runs and could give issuers more flexibility and better yields, while still enforcing strict short-term liquidity.
- The proposal sits in the European Commissions MiCA review and may feed into legislation from 2027, alongside a push to tighten bans on yield-bearing stablecoin products.
Deep Dive
1. What Rule The ECB Wants Changed
Under MiCA, issuers of euro and other fiat-referenced stablecoins must keep at least 30 percent of reserves as bank deposits, rising to 60 percent for significant tokens.
In a formal response to the European Commissions MiCA review, the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) urged regulators to remove these deposit floors and instead require that reserve assets mature within one and five working days, aligning with draft European Banking Authority standards that set 20/30 percent thresholds for non-significant tokens and 40/60 percent for significant ones. This shift is described in detail in an ESCB summary of the proposed liquidity thresholds.
Regulation would care more about how quickly reserves can be turned into cash, and less about them sitting as deposits in EU banks.
2. Why Central Banks Want Liquidity Rules
Central banks argue that large, volatile deposits from stablecoin issuers are not stable bank funding. If a major token faces heavy redemptions, the issuer could pull billions from one or a few banks very quickly, amplifying stress in the banking system.
By shifting to maturity-based liquidity rules, the ECB wants issuers to hold highly liquid assets, such as overnight repos or short-term sovereign bonds, that can meet redemptions without creating a direct, concentrated link to individual banks, as explained in several analyses of the proposed reserve changes. For issuers, this could free more capital from low-yield deposits into higher-yield short-duration securities, which matters for large dollar and euro stablecoins operating in Europe.
Stablecoins used in the EU could remain tightly regulated, but reserves may be managed more like conservative bond portfolios than oversized bank accounts.
3. What To Watch Next For MiCA And Stablecoins
The ECBs recommendations are part of the Commissions MiCA review, which feeds into a report and potential amendment package expected to inform EU legislative work from around 2027. Until any law changes, the 30 and 60 percent deposit rules remain in force.
At the same time, the ESCB is asking to broaden MiCAs ban on stablecoin remuneration so that lending, borrowing, staking, and similar yield products are treated as prohibited interest-like returns, as outlined in a detailed response on stablecoin yield limits.
Crypto users in Europe should expect a regime where stablecoins are allowed but tightly constrained on both reserve structure and yield, with any future MiCA amendments deciding how friendly the EU ultimately is to global stablecoin issuers.
Conclusion
The ECBs push is not to loosen MiCA, but to swap rigid bank-deposit quotas for a more targeted liquidity regime that avoids bank contagion while keeping stablecoins immediately redeemable.
If adopted, the changes could make EU authorization more attractive to major issuers, yet the parallel drive to clamp down on stablecoin yields signals a regulatory model that supports payments and market stability, not savings products built on stablecoins.
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