EU Parliament Committee Backs DeFi, Staking and NFT Regulation Review

The European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) on June 27 approved a non-binding report calling on the European Commission to assess whether DeFi, staking and NFTs should be regulated. The report was drafted by Belgian MEP Johan Van Overtveldt, who in 2023 publicly compared crypto to drugs. That same lawmaker now supports euro-denominated stablecoins and is pushing for a regulatory framework for decentralized finance.

What does the ECON report actually recommend?

The report covers several areas at once. ECON asks the Commission to determine whether a separate regulatory framework is needed for lending and borrowing protocols, staking, NFTs and DeFi platforms. These activities currently fall outside MiCA, the regulation that entered into force in 2024 and primarily covers centralized exchanges and stablecoin issuers.

• DeFi and lending protocols: a request for assessment of risks to financial stability and consumer protection.
• Staking and crypto lending are flagged for similar review at the EU level.
• NFTs are treated separately due to their distinct nature compared to fungible tokens.
• Tokenization of financial services is encouraged. The report backs its expansion across banking and payments.
• Euro-denominated stablecoins under MiCA should be developed to strengthen the euro's role in international payments.

The document also warns member states against adding national requirements on top of MiCA, which ECON sees as a risk of market fragmentation. The committee pushes for consistent MiCA application across all EU countries to prevent regulatory arbitrage, where companies relocate to whichever jurisdiction applies the lightest rules.

How is a resolution different from a law?

ECON is a committee, not the full Parliament. Its approvals carry the weight of a recommendation. The next step is a plenary vote scheduled for July 7. If a majority supports the text, it becomes the Parliament's official position on digital assets, but not a law.

A resolution asks the Commission to take Parliament's views into account, not to immediately draft new directives. Actual DeFi regulation would require a separate legislative proposal, public consultations and lengthy inter-institutional negotiations between the Parliament, Council and Commission. The MiCA experience shows this takes at least 3-4 years from first draft to entry into force, making real DeFi rules unlikely before 2028-2029.

Why did DeFi and staking enter the debate right now?

Van Overtveldt first tabled a draft report in February 2026. After months of amendments by ECON members, the document reached its final vote. The earlier version focused mainly on MiCA's existing framework without a clear ask on DeFi. The final text is significantly broader in scope.

The broader context matters: the European Commission itself launched a public consultation in May 2026 on whether to expand MiCA to cover DeFi, staking, NFTs, tokenized assets and a possible review of the ban on interest-bearing stablecoins. The ECON report picked up that thread and gave it parliamentary backing.

For Ethereum holders this is worth watching. ETH staking is one of the largest crypto activities in the EU by volume. If the Commission decides to regulate staking providers as licensed service providers, major delegated staking platforms will face materially different operating conditions.

From "crypto is like drugs" to backing euro stablecoins

In 2023, Van Overtveldt publicly compared crypto to narcotics. His comments came after USDC briefly lost its dollar peg following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, where Circle held roughly $3.3 billion in reserves. The bank run fueled skepticism toward the entire crypto industry among European lawmakers.

Three years later, the same MEP is encouraging euro stablecoins and talking about EU financial market competitiveness. MiCA launched without the market collapsing. Dollar stablecoin dominance in global payments became a visible competitive threat to the euro. That same week, ECON also backed the digital euro bill, arguing that public and private digital money should work alongside each other rather than compete.

What comes after July 1

The MiCA transitional period ends July 1. After that date, all crypto asset service providers serving EU customers must hold a CASP authorization. Spain's regulator announced there will be no exceptions and no extensions. The market is already focused on which firms made the deadline and which did not.

While that wave covers the centralized sector, regulators are already laying the foundation for the next step. Decentralized exchanges currently sit outside MiCA, but the question of how to regulate them is now officially on the EU's agenda. The ECON report is a signal, not a decision. But the signal from a parliamentary committee is clear: DeFi, staking and NFTs are the subject of the next regulatory cycle in the EU.