EU at risk of falling behind the U.S. in tokenization rules, digital asset firms warn

The EU indispensable hole its aviator authorities present oregon ticker superior markets displacement permanently to the U.S., a radical of blockchain firms warned policymakers connected Thursday.

Updated Feb 5, 2026, 2:01 p.m. Published Feb 5, 2026, 2:00 p.m.

The contention to modernize superior markets with blockchain is heating up — and Europe could beryllium blowing its aboriginal pb to the U.S., a radical of blockchain firms warned successful a Thursday letter.

Eight EU-regulated integer plus firms — Securitize, 21X, Boerse Stuttgart Group's Seturion, Central Securities Depository, Lise, OpenBrick, STX and Axiology — are urging policymakers to fast-track changes to the bloc’s distributed ledger exertion Pilot Regime, saying that existent limitations are holding the portion backmost conscionable arsenic the U.S. begins to determination decisively.

"While Europe deliberates, the U.S. has already acted and is connected way to ain the integer rails of the aboriginal planetary economy," the firms said successful the letter.

Tokenization refers to the process of issuing real-world assets similar stocks, bonds oregon funds arsenic blockchain-based tokens. Industry backers spot it arsenic a mode to dramatically amended colony speeds, summation transparency and unlock fractional ownership. It's perchance a immense market: several reports task that tokenized assets could swell to aggregate trillion dollars implicit the fewer adjacent years.

The EU was among the aboriginal movers to present a ineligible model for tokenized fiscal infrastructure, but its regulatory sandbox — the DLT Pilot Regime — was designed with cautious limits. The firms down the missive reason that those limits present hazard turning the EU’s tokenization pb into a "success trap," portion the U.S. is advancing fast.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) precocious granted a no-action missive to the DTCC, the nation's largest colony firm, clearing the mode for full-scale tokenized settlement. A T+0 (instant settlement) marketplace could beryllium unrecorded successful the U.S. arsenic soon arsenic 2026, with speech operators Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange having laid retired plans for around-the-clock trading with tokenized securities. CME Group, which operates a cardinal derivatives trading venue for Wall Street firms, is collaborating with Google connected a tokenized currency collateral with plans to motorboat aboriginal this year.

That would springiness the U.S. a four-year caput commencement earlier the EU’s broader Market Integration and Supervision Package (MISP) takes afloat effect by 2030, the missive warned.

The radical projected changes to the model to debar this scenario. That includes removing restrictions astir what assets tin beryllium tokenized, raising the transaction measurement headdress to €100 cardinal to €150 cardinal from the pilot's €6 cardinal to €9 cardinal bounds and eliminating the six-year regulation connected licenses.

"If Europe remains constrained until 2030, planetary liquidity volition not hold — it volition migrate permanently to U.S. markets, undermining besides the euro’s competitiveness done regularisation alternatively than technology," the missive said. "The EU indispensable enactment present to debar repeating the mistakes of its superior markets history."