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Report: MiCA is expected to become the foundation for global stablecoin regulation

The Digital Euro Association has published a report analysing the impact of European MiCA regulations on stablecoin offerings. The report notes that the MiCA is expected to form the basis for global stablecoin regulation, but also makes recommendations for improvement. The report recommends the establishment of a global body similar to the Basel Committee to harmonize stablecoin standards and gain insights from the implementation of the MiCA. The report criticized the MiCA's strict rules, such as requiring ordinary stablecoins and important stablecoins to hold 30% and 60% of reserves, respectively, which affected profitability and increased credit risk, as exemplified by the decoupling of Circle's USDC following the collapse of Silicon Valley banks. The report also discusses the ambiguity of anti-money laundering (AML) regulations, arguing that further clarification is needed. In addition, international stablecoin issuers face challenges in complying with MiCAR, such as the need to hire a European Union-mandated custodian and address the complexities of dual-issue structures. The report disagrees with MiCA's size limit on the use of foreign currency electronic currency tokens in the European Union, arguing that this could weaken the USD/EUR trading pair, but the reality is not the case. Overall, the report lists a number of grey areas and topics that need to be considered in the European Union and beyond.