European Union officials are preparing a revision of the bloc's crypto rulebook that would extend stablecoin oversight beyond its own borders, according to a July 9, 2026 report from Cointelegraph. The proposal, informally called "MiCA 2.0," would widen the scope of the Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation to cover stablecoins issued outside the EU that still circulate inside it.
The original MiCA framework, fully in force across the bloc since the end of its grace period, already sets reserve, disclosure, and authorization rules for stablecoin issuers operating in Europe. The gap officials now want to close sits with tokens minted abroad. A dollar stablecoin issued by a non-EU entity can reach European users through exchanges, wallets, and payment apps without the same direct supervision that an EU-authorized issuer carries.
The offshore gap MiCA 2.0 targets
Under the current rules, an issuer wanting to offer a stablecoin to EU residents at scale generally needs authorization as an electronic money institution or credit institution, plus reserves held to strict standards. Large non-euro stablecoins face caps on daily transaction volume once they pass usage thresholds. That structure pushed several global issuers to either seek EU licensing or restrict European access.
The reported revision aims at what regulators see as a workaround: foreign-issued tokens that flow into the EU market indirectly. If a stablecoin is widely used for payments and settlement in Europe but its issuer sits outside the bloc, supervisors have limited direct leverage over its reserves or redemption practices. MiCA 2.0 would try to assert that leverage regardless of where the token was minted.
Cointelegraph's report describes the effort as an expansion of scope rather than a full rewrite. The core reserve and consumer-protection principles stay. What changes is the reach: the rules would follow the token into the EU market instead of stopping at the issuer's home jurisdiction.
Pressure from a fast-growing euro stablecoin market
The timing tracks with hard numbers. Euro-denominated stablecoins jumped 128% to $673.9 million in circulating supply as MiCA compliance reshaped which tokens European users can hold. Total stablecoin settlement volume hit a record $1.79 trillion in June 2026, up 63% from May, according to Visa's on-chain tracker. A market moving that much value is one regulators do not want running partly outside their line of sight.
Europe's stablecoin balance is still tilted heavily toward dollar tokens, even after the euro-coin surge. That imbalance is part of the political motivation. EU policymakers have said repeatedly that they do not want the region's digital payment rails settling mostly in privately issued dollars from firms they cannot directly supervise. Extending MiCA's reach to non-EU issuers is one way to change that math without banning the tokens outright.
Direct line to crypto card rails
Stablecoins are not an abstraction for card users. A growing share of crypto cards settle transactions in USDC or USDT behind the scenes, converting to euros at the point of sale. If MiCA 2.0 tightens which non-EU stablecoins can legally circulate in the bloc, issuers building card products around those tokens will have to confirm their settlement asset stays compliant.
For providers that already pursued MiCA authorization, the shift is manageable. OKX has said it is fully MiCA-authorised now that Europe's grace period ended, and Ripple secured a full MiCA CASP license through Luxembourg's regulator. Firms that leaned on offshore dollar liquidity without local licensing face the harder adjustment. A card program that routes euro spending through a non-compliant foreign stablecoin could find that rail restricted if the revision passes in its reported form.
None of this is settled law yet. The report describes officials planning and drafting, not a passed statute. MiCA itself took years to move from proposal to enforcement, and a scope expansion of this kind would run through the same institutional process, with issuer lobbying and member-state negotiation along the way. Readers should treat "MiCA 2.0" as an early-stage signal of direction, not a rule in force.
Overview
EU officials are drafting a MiCA revision, informally labeled MiCA 2.0, that would pull non-EU stablecoin issuers into the bloc's oversight when their tokens circulate in Europe. The goal is to close the gap that lets foreign-issued dollar coins reach EU users with lighter direct supervision. The push follows a 128% surge in euro stablecoins and record global settlement volume. For crypto card users, the practical stake is which stablecoins can legally back euro spending. The proposal is at the drafting stage, so the specific thresholds and timeline are not yet fixed.
