MiCA regulation revision: The French authorities publish their joint proposals
AI Analysis
On 2026-10-21, the French Treasury, AMF, Banque de France and ACPR submitted joint proposals to the European Commission's review of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 on markets in crypto-assets (MiCA). The submission is not binding and does not amend MiCA, but it signals likely French priorities for future legislation: clearer boundaries with MiFID and payment-services rules, stronger ESMA supervision of significant crypto firms, tighter treatment of non-compliant stablecoins, and a regulated framework for DeFi, staking and crypto lending.
Key dates
- 2026-10-21
- The French Treasury, AMF, Banque de France and ACPR published their joint response to the European Commission consultation on the MiCA review.
- 2026-09-30 Deadline
- The European Commission consultation deadline identified in independent legal commentary; this date had passed before publication of the French authorities' response.
Suggested considerations
- Compliance teams may wish to maintain the existing MiCA control framework because this publication does not create an immediate amendment, authorisation requirement or prohibition.
- Firms should consider mapping each token, service and distribution channel against the definitions and perimeter provisions of MiCA, MiFID II and payment-services legislation, with particular attention to products that could require more than one authorisation.
- EU-authorised crypto-asset service providers should consider reviewing onboarding, asset-admission, execution, custody, trading and distribution controls for exposure to asset-referenced tokens or e-money tokens that may not satisfy MiCA requirements.
- Stablecoin issuers and groups using the same fungible token across EU and third-country markets should consider documenting issuance structures, reserve segregation, redemption rights, equivalence assumptions and supervisory-cooperation dependencies in anticipation of possible multi-issuance rules.
- Significant crypto-asset service providers and crypto-conglomerates should consider assessing governance, prudential, group-risk and supervisory-reporting readiness for a possible future shift of direct or enhanced oversight toward ESMA.
- Banks, payment firms and investment firms should consider assessing strategic opportunities and regulatory dependencies arising from euro-denominated e-money tokens and tokenised bank deposits without treating the French position as approval of any specific product.
- DeFi, staking and crypto-lending businesses should consider identifying responsible intermediaries, documenting due-diligence controls and preserving evidence of protocol governance and risk assessments pending any future EU framework.
- Industry participants may wish to monitor the Commission's MiCA review, subsequent legislative proposals, ESMA and EBA opinions, and national implementation developments before changing operating models.
What changed
No legal requirements changed on 2026-10-21. The French authorities proposed streamlining MiCA and clarifying when an activity falls under MiCA, the legislation governing financial instruments, or payment-services legislation, including where one business model could require multiple authorisations. They stated that a financial instrument should remain fully subject to the financial-instruments regime irrespective of the technology used for issuance or trading, and that the same principle should apply to payment instruments. They supported wider use of euro-denominated e-money tokens and tokenised bank deposits, while proposing an explicit prohibition on EU-authorised crypto-asset service providers providing services involving stablecoins that do not comply with MiCA. They also proposed a
Compliance impact
The immediate compliance impact is low because the publication is a non-binding consultation response, not a regulation, delegated act, supervisory decision or enforcement measure. Its strategic significance is material: the proposals could expand supervisory centralisation, increase scrutiny of non-compliant stablecoins and bring currently uncertain DeFi, staking and lending activities into more
Who is affected
Related regulations
References
AI-generated analysis. May contain errors or omissions — verify with the original AMF source before acting. Full disclaimer.
What the AMF said
MiCA Regulatory developments Cooperation Europe & international Other professionals Fintech Investment services providers MiCA regulation revision: The French authorities publish their joint proposals
Published by AMF . Read the full notice at the source for the authoritative text.