EBA to impose additional rules on stablecoin issuers

Stablecoin issuers whose reserves consist of derivatives or covered bonds will face additional regulation. This stems from the draft of new rules by EBA, according to CoinDesk.

The document envisages higher capital requirements for such firms in the event that the tokens they issue are deemed ‘significant’.

Supervision of such entities will be partly or wholly assigned to the EBA.

“Financial difficulties at a single issuer of ART or EMT could significantly increase the likelihood of problems for other crypto-asset issuers or for other financial institutions, given the network of their contractual obligations,” the document states.

The EBA has set out a number of preliminary criteria for designating stablecoins as ‘significant’. Among them:

• the share of assets issued by regulated financial institutions, excluding deposits;
• market share in cross-border payments;
• the number of users;
• market capitalization.

According to MiCA, issuers of such assets will be required to conduct stress tests and to hold 3% of reserves in their own capital (for other institutions this parameter is 2%).

The draft of rules will be published for consultation with interested parties.

As reported in July 2023, the EBA published ‘guidelines’ for stablecoin issuers under the MiCA regulatory framework.

The document urges companies to prepare their business for compliance with the legislation approved on 20 April, which will take effect on 30 June 2024.