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TL;DR
- Circle has submitted its formal response to the European Commission’s targeted MiCA review consultation.
- The USDC issuer wants Europe to preserve multi-issuance structures, reconsider rigid bank-deposit reserve requirements and develop a recognition regime for foreign-regulated stablecoins.
- The submission is policy advocacy, not a change to MiCA itself.
Circle is asking European policymakers to adjust parts of MiCA now that the stablecoin rulebook has moved from theory into day-to-day operation.
The company submitted its response to the European Commission’s targeted review of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation on October 1. Circle is approaching the consultation from an unusual position: it issues both USDC and EURC under MiCA and says it now has roughly two years of practical experience operating inside the framework.
Its argument is not that Europe should abandon MiCA. It is that the first major crypto framework needs refinement if Europe wants regulated stablecoins to compete with global liquidity rather than exist beside it.
Circle wants multi-issuance preserved
One of Circle’s main requests concerns multi-issuance, where a globally circulating stablecoin can be co-issued by an EU-authorised entity and a foreign-regulated counterpart.
Circle argues that restricting that structure could simply push European users toward offshore versions of the same assets, outside the protections MiCA was designed to provide. The company recommends preserving multi-issuance while formalising safeguards around reserve management and rebalancing.
It also wants the EU to consider a longer-term equivalence and recognition regime for foreign-regulated stablecoins. Under that model, an issuer could remain primarily supervised in its home jurisdiction while gaining recognised distribution access in Europe through a locally licensed institution.
The proposal comes after a year in which exchange access has already been reshaped by MiCA. NewsBTC has covered the way Binance changed European stablecoin rules and how exchanges including Binance, Coinbase and Kraken restricted parts of USDT access as the framework tightened.
Reserve rules are another pressure point
Circle also takes aim at MiCA’s reserve requirements.
The framework currently requires e-money token issuers to hold at least 30% of reserves in commercial bank deposits, rising to 60% for tokens classified as significant. Circle says that can increase exposure to banking-sector counterparty risk and wants the fixed deposit requirement replaced with a broader liquidity standard.
The company also criticises concentration limits that can force large issuers to spread reserves across many banks or prevent non-euro stablecoins from relying heavily on high-quality sovereign assets.
Circle’s position is strengthened by its own European footprint. NewsBTC previously reported how EURC expanded to Base as regulated euro liquidity began moving into more active onchain markets.
Europe now has to decide what comes after first-mover status
Circle says around 30 e-money tokens are now authorised under MiCA, but only three of the world’s top 25 stablecoins by market capitalisation are MiCA-regulated.
That gap captures the next policy challenge. Europe succeeded in creating a comprehensive framework first. The review is now about whether that framework can attract global liquidity without weakening its consumer and reserve protections.
Circle has made its case. The European Commission has not accepted it, and the consultation itself does not change any law. But the arguments being made now will shape the next version of Europe’s stablecoin market.
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This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.
