More than 50,000 Europeans have urged the European Commission to loosen restrictions on stablecoin rewards as part of its review of the bloc’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework. The letters arrived as the Commission closed its consultation period on Wednesday, October 1.
Stand With Crypto EU, a crypto advocacy group, coordinated the campaign during the MiCA review process. The organization collected the letters to pressure regulators into permitting stablecoin issuers and service providers to offer customer benefits including cashback, loyalty rewards, and fee reductions.
Harry Pearce Gould, general manager of Stand With Crypto EU, framed the restriction as a competitive disadvantage. “We are calling on the Commission to use the MiCA review to allow regulated stablecoins to offer rewards to holders,” Gould said. He added that stablecoins currently cannot match the incentives available through bank deposits and e-money products.
The 50,000-letter campaign significantly outpaced prior regulatory consultations in Europe. A petition backing the same position attracted 126,000 signatures. Stand With Crypto EU’s responses to the MiCA review consultation exceeded the European Central Bank’s digital euro consultation responses by a factor of six. The ECB received 8,221 responses to its digital euro consultation, compared to the 198 responses the European Commission received during its 2020 consultation on crypto rules.
The advocacy effort arrives amid a fundamental disagreement between industry and central banks over stablecoin design. The European System of Central Banks (ESCB) submitted its formal response to the Commission’s MiCA review on September 22. That response proposed extending MiCA’s prohibition on interest payments to include lending, borrowing, and staking arrangements that generate yield.
ESCB also recommended replacing MiCA’s minimum bank deposit reserve requirements with liquidity thresholds. The central banking system cited potential strain on lenders during stablecoin runs. The European Central Bank warned in June that stablecoins settle around the clock, while reserve assets operate on traditional settlement timelines, creating a potential liquidity mismatch.
ECB President Christine Lagarde warned in May that deposit shifts from banks to stablecoins could weaken bank lending and monetary policy transmission.
Gould positioned stablecoin rewards as essential to European competitiveness. “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 said. He also emphasized the currency dimension: “Strong euro stablecoins matter for the euro’s global standing and the EU’s payment sovereignty.”
The Commission has not disclosed its timeline for publishing MiCA review decisions or which changes it is considering.
