ECB-Led Central Banks Push to Scrap MiCA's Bank-Deposit Quota for Stablecoin Reserves

The European Central Bank and the national central banks that make up the European System of Central Banks (ESZB) are lobbying to change one of the core provisions of the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, arguing that current rules on how stablecoin issuers must hold their reserves need to be rewritten.

Under MiCA as it stands, stablecoin providers must keep a minimum of 30 percent of their reserves as deposits at banks. For issuers designated as especially large, that threshold rises to 60 percent. According to a statement from the ESZB, reported by Reuters, the central banks want these fixed quotas scrapped altogether.

The ESZB, which comprises the ECB and the 27 national central banks of EU member states, argues that tying reserves to bank deposits at set percentages creates risks for the banking sector itself. The statement puts it directly: \"Wenn Reserven als Bankeinlagen gehalten werden, können Stablecoins die Finanzierungsstruktur von Banken verändern.\"

In place of the deposit quotas, the central banks are proposing liquidity-based requirements, specifying what share of reserves must be available within one working day and what share within five working days. The approach would shift the regulatory focus from where reserves are parked to how quickly they can be accessed, a distinction the ESZB considers more relevant to financial stability than a blanket deposit ratio.

Multi-issuance models under scrutiny

The statement also revives central bank concerns about so-called multi-issuance stablecoin models, in which a single provider issues tokens both inside the EU and in other jurisdictions, with those tokens exchangeable regardless of where they were originally issued. The ESZB considers such structures not currently permitted under existing MiCA rules, but flags that should the EU decide to allow them in future, stricter requirements would need to apply to that category of issuer.

Enforcement is a further point of concern. The central banks note that crypto companies not complying with MiCA can still reach customers across the EU, which they say creates gaps in investor protection that the current framework has not closed.

What the change would mean

For stablecoin operators active in the EU, a shift from fixed bank-deposit quotas to liquidity-timing requirements would alter both how reserves are structured and which banking relationships issuers need to maintain. The proposal, coming from the institution responsible for euro-area monetary policy alongside its national counterparts, carries weight in the ongoing review of MiCA's technical standards, even though no legislative timeline for the change has been set out in the statement reported by Reuters.