TL;DR
- EU officials are preparing to reassess MiCA, with Peter Kerstens saying the framework will likely evolve as crypto markets mature beyond the conditions it addressed.
- MiCA includes a review clause requiring the European Commission to report on its application by June 30, 2027, with possible legislative proposals if needed.
- Recent pressure points include Circle’s push for stablecoin settlement changes and debate over whether crypto firms should be supervised by ESMA.
MiCA is being treated less as a finished rulebook than as an opening framework after a European Commission adviser said the EU’s crypto regime will likely evolve as digital asset markets mature. The signal from Brussels is not that the current system is broken, but that regulation may soon have to catch up with a market it helped organize. Speaking at Paris Blockchain Week 2026, Peter Kerstens said the Commission will review the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation and launch a consultation to test whether the rules still work for market participants and business development.
Kerstens framed that review as a normal part of EU financial lawmaking rather than a response to failure. His point was that crypto no longer looks like the market MiCA was originally built to govern. He said the framework was designed when assets were dominated by a few major tokens surrounded by smaller ones, while the ecosystem has since matured into something more complex. In that context, he suggested it would be unusual if there were not eventually a “MiCA 2,” even if he could not predict exactly how the next phase would take shape.
The Review Could Redefine How Europe Regulates Crypto
The regulation contains a built-in review clause, requiring the Commission to report on MiCA’s application by June 30, 2027, and allowing legislative proposals to accompany that review if needed. That built-in mechanism matters because it turns reassessment from a political surprise into an expected part of the framework itself. Kerstens also said the consultation would begin with “no taboos,” inviting market participants to identify where rules should be expanded, revised, or left unchanged. A clear message followed: if regulation stops evolving while innovation keeps moving, legal uncertainty can emerge around the edges of the existing structure.
That warning is arriving as MiCA and EU measures are being tested in practice. The pressure for reassessment is coming not only from theory, but from disputes over how the rules should operate in the market. On March 24, Circle urged the European Commission to revise parts of its Market Integration Package, including lower thresholds that limit the use of euro-denominated stablecoins in settlement and broader access for crypto-asset service providers. Then on April 3, officials debated whether supervision of major crypto firms should move to ESMA amid concerns over inconsistent enforcement across the bloc.
