Opinion: EU Should Prioritize Tokenization over DeFi
BITmarkets Team
Jun 09, 2026
The European Commission launched a public consultation in May to gather feedback on MiCA, with submissions open until Aug. 31. Speaking during a fireside chat at WAIB Summit Monaco 2026, Peter Kerstens, one of the key architects behind MiCA, suggested that the current regulation remains fit for purpose.
"I do not believe that [MiCA] is outdated now. That’s my personal opinion, but it does not matter. That’s why we have this consultation,” Kerstens told Cointelegraph. He explained that the responses gathered during the review process will help determine the next stage of the European Union’s digital asset regulatory strategy.
The consultation comes as MiCA approaches a major milestone. The regulation’s transitional period ends on July 1, after which crypto asset service providers must either obtain a MiCA license or cease serving customers within the European Union.
MiCA architect questions need for DeFi regulation
One of the areas highlighted in the consultation is decentralized finance (DeFi), which remains largely outside the current scope of MiCA. However, Kerstens expressed skepticism about whether DeFi requires dedicated regulation at all.
According to him, regulating decentralized protocols presents unique challenges because legal frameworks are traditionally designed to apply to individuals and organizations rather than autonomous software networks. He argued that lawmakers would need an entirely new legal approach to regulate systems that lack a clearly identifiable entity behind them.
Kerstens also questioned whether there is currently a compelling reason for regulators to intervene. “I don't see what the problem is. And if there is no problem, why should it be regulated?” He further described DeFi as a “movement” with “no representatives,” suggesting that traditional regulatory mechanisms may not be appropriate for such decentralized systems.
Debate continues over DAO decentralization
Despite Kerstens’ views, the question of whether some decentralized projects are truly decentralized remains a topic of discussion among European policymakers. Earlier this year, a working paper published by the European Central Bank examined whether decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) should continue to remain outside MiCA’s regulatory scope.
The study analyzed governance structures across several leading DeFi protocols, including Aave, MakerDAO, Ampleforth and Uniswap. Researchers found that the top 100 governance token holders controlled more than 80% of the voting power within each protocol, based on snapshots taken between November 2022 and May 2023.
According to the authors, these findings raise important questions about the extent to which DAOs can genuinely be considered decentralized. The paper argued that such concentration of governance power could challenge the assumption that these protocols qualify as fully decentralized services and therefore exempt from MiCA oversight.
Tokenization may become the next regulatory focus
While the consultation includes DeFi among the areas under review, Kerstens indicated that future regulatory efforts may be better directed toward emerging sectors such as tokenized assets and blockchain-based financial infrastructure.
As institutional adoption of tokenization accelerates, regulators are increasingly evaluating how existing financial rules apply to digital representations of real-world assets, including securities, funds and other financial instruments. The feedback collected through the current consultation process is expected to play a key role in shaping the European Union’s next regulatory initiatives as digital asset markets continue to evolve.
Sources:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/eu-broader-crypto-market-framework-mica-2-defi-regulations
