Regulations
By Bruce Buterin
1 / 15
Where MiCA Falls Short on DeFi. The gap isn't subtle. DeFi platforms — lending protocols, decentralized exchanges, automated…
2 / 15
CLARITY Act Aims Higher, Moves Slower. Across the Atlantic, the answer the US is building looks very different.
3 / 15
Two Strategies, One Moving Target. The comparison between MiCA and the CLARITY Act isn't really about which approach is better in the…
4 / 15
The EU's big crypto rulebook is finally real. MiCA — the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation — became fully applicable by July 2026, closing out the last transition windows for…
5 / 15
But the celebration is pretty short. MiCA's scope stops well short of decentralized finance.
6 / 15
The gap isn't subtle. DeFi platforms — lending protocols, decentralized exchanges, automated market makers — keep running without a clear EU regulatory framework to guide them.
7 / 15
It's worth being precise about what MiCA actually does well. Centralized exchanges, crypto asset service providers, stablecoin issuers — they all now face consistent rules on…
8 / 15
But the intermediary layer isn't the whole market. DeFi has grown into a significant chunk of on-chain activity globally, and the EU's framework doesn't touch it.
9 / 15
The EU probably knows it. Expectations inside the industry are that Brussels will eventually revisit DeFi coverage in a follow-on framework.
10 / 15
Across the Atlantic, the answer the US is building looks very different. The CLARITY Act is designed to cover the full spectrum of crypto activity — not just centralized…
11 / 15
More context: PayPals PYUSDx Surges Past $100M as Saturn, Concrete, and Cap Innovate with Custom Coins
12 / 15
That's ambitious. Maybe too ambitious for the current legislative calendar.
13 / 15
Negotiations are still grinding along. Key sticking points — yield language, ethics provisions — haven't been resolved.
14 / 15
The delay isn't surprising. Writing rules for DeFi is genuinely hard. You can't just copy the broker-dealer framework and paste it onto a smart contract.
15 / 15
So the US has the broader ambition but not the finished law. The EU has the finished law but not the broader ambition.
The Currency Analytics
Want the full story?