Catenaa, Thursday, September 04, 2025- The European Commission is preparing proposals in December for its Savings and Investment Union (SIU), incorporating elements of real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, an adviser said.
Peter Kerstens, an EU Commission adviser, described RWA tokenization as the next major trend for regulators to prioritize, signaling a potential shift in the integration of blockchain technology into traditional financial markets.
Kerstens highlighted that there is no immediate need for a new Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA 2.0) framework, suggesting that regulators focus instead on tokenizing financial instruments including equities, debt, and derivatives.
The Commission aims to modernize fragmented EU capital markets using distributed ledger technology, leveraging blockchain as a unifying tool across 27 national markets.
The initiative builds on the EU’s DLT Pilot Regime, effective March 2023, which provides a legal framework for crypto-asset transactions qualifying as financial instruments.
Initially met with limited enthusiasm from traditional financial institutions, Kerstens noted that banks and securities firms are now increasingly receptive to public blockchain adoption, though regulatory frameworks remain outdated.
Through the SIU program, the Commission seeks to channel savings into cross-border investments while enhancing capital market efficiency.
Kerstens expressed confidence that financial markets will eventually undergo large-scale tokenization. ESMA Executive Director Natasha Cazenave reinforced the view, noting that tokenization could bring transformational changes and significant efficiency gains to EU markets.
