The European Banking Authority has formally urged the European Commission to bring crypto borrowing and lending inside the scope of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation as the EU's MiCA consultation enters its final days. The consultation closes at 23:59 CEST on 30 September 2026, after a one-month extension from the original 31 August deadline, and responses will feed into a legally mandated Commission report due by 30 June 2027 under Article 140.
In its submission filed on 24 September, the EBA called for a robust cost-benefit analysis to consider extending the list of crypto-asset service provider services to include intermediating borrowing and lending, and to set requirements for CASPs that facilitate client access to DeFi lending protocols. The regulator argued that easier interfaces and AI tools are blurring the line between centralised and decentralised activity, and proposed suitability tests for crypto borrowing as well as leverage caps for some or all users. It also warned that consumers receive insufficient information on pricing, fees, interest rates and changes to collateral requirements.
The EBA's intervention targets Section 4.2 of the Commission's 86-question consultation, which also covers DeFi, staking and the MiCA prohibition on paying interest on e-money tokens. The authority warned that the interest ban in Articles 40 and 50 may push yield-seeking demand into lending and create regulatory arbitrage risks. It separately flagged third-country multi-issuer stablecoin schemes as a source of significant to very significant risk and recommended reviewing reserve requirements, while saying existing requirements for asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens are broadly appropriate.
The consultation was opened on 20 May and is aimed at crypto-asset service providers, issuers and public authorities. The EBA said 39 e-money tokens had been issued under MiCA and no asset-referenced tokens had been authorised as of 1 September 2026, and only three of the top fifty stablecoins meet EU rules. The European Central Bank has already pushed to widen the stablecoin yield ban. The EBA also called for clearer classification of crypto-assets under MiCA and a review of reporting requirements for issuers and service providers.
Nothing changes on 30 September itself, but the window for influencing the next version of the EU crypto rulebook closes. The UK's FCA crypto gateway opens on the same day, a separate event that firms operating on both sides of the Channel should not confuse.
