MiCA Tokenization Focus: EU Defer DeFi Rules Amid Consultation

An EU MiCA architect said the European Union should prioritize broader crypto regulation for real-world assets and MiCA tokenization, rather than using a second MiCA version to regulate decentralized finance (DeFi). Peter Kerstens, an adviser at the European Commission and one of MiCA’s architects, said DeFi is hard to regulate because laws apply to people and organizations, not directly to computer networks. He argued DeFi has “no representatives,” so he sees no clear problem to solve. The European Commission launched a public consultation on MiCA in May, seeking feedback through Aug. 31, with transitional rules ending July 1. After July 1, crypto asset service providers must hold a MiCA license or stop serving EU clients. Kerstens noted that DeFi was discussed as a risk area in the consultation excerpt, even though it sits largely outside MiCA’s current scope. He expects the feedback period to shape the EU’s next steps. Related scrutiny comes from a March European Central Bank working paper questioning whether decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are sufficiently decentralized to stay outside MiCA. Using governance-token holder concentration data for Aave, MakerDAO, Ampleforth and Uniswap, the paper found the top 100 holders controlled over 80% of supply in each protocol (snapshots from Nov 2022 and May 2023), challenging whether these services should be treated as “fully decentralized.” For traders, MiCA tokenization remains the clearer near-term regulatory signal, while DeFi’s legal treatment looks more uncertain—potentially reducing immediate regulatory fear but keeping token-specific governance risk in focus.