50,000 Europeans Urge EU to Ease Stablecoin Rewards in MiCA Review

More than 50,000 Europeans have written to the European Commission calling for stablecoin reward restrictions to be loosened during the ongoing review of the bloc's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework. The campaign, organized by crypto advocacy group Stand With Crypto EU, was submitted ahead of the Commission's Wednesday deadline for its review consultation, and advocates for regulated stablecoin providers to be permitted to offer incentives such as cashback, loyalty benefits, and fee reductions to holders. Separately, more than 126,000 people have signed the group's petition urging a more permissive EU approach to stablecoins.

MiCA currently prohibits issuers and crypto service providers from paying interest on stablecoins, a restriction Stand With Crypto EU argues places these products at a structural disadvantage compared to bank deposits and e-money products that can offer similar benefits. The group noted that its campaign generated more than six times the 8,221 responses submitted to the European Central Bank's digital euro consultation and vastly exceeded the 198 responses received during the Commission's 2020 consultation on crypto rules. "We are calling on the Commission to use the MiCA review to allow regulated stablecoins to offer rewards to holders," said Stand With Crypto EU general manager Harry Pearce Gould.

The campaign also comes as European central banks push for broader changes to MiCA's stablecoin provisions. In a Sept. 22 response to the Commission's consultation, the ESCB urged that the interest prohibition be extended further. Pearce Gould pointed to the US as a model Europe should aim to compete with rather than replicate, stating that "the US has made a clear choice to back stablecoins as the settlement layer for tokenisation. Europe doesn't need to copy that, but it does need to compete with it." He added that allowing rewards could help euro-denominated stablecoins gain adoption and challenge the dominance of dollar-pegged stablecoins, adding that "strong euro stablecoins matter for the euro's global standing and the EU's payment sovereignty."