EU DeFi Proposals Could Restrict Crypto Access: Coinbase

European Union efforts to tighten oversight of decentralized finance (DeFi) might drive crypto customers towards platforms providing fewer investor protections, based on Coinbase’s head of EU coverage.

Roeland Van der Stappen advised Cointelegraph that regulated crypto platforms might reply by limiting or dropping entry to DeFi providers.

“Guidelines designed to guard buyers would find yourself pushing exercise in the direction of the locations with the least safety,” Van der Stappen stated.

In its September response to the European Fee’s session on the Markets in Crypto-Belongings Regulation (MiCA), the European Securities and Markets Authority advisable creating a new category of regulated crypto services for companies that give prospects entry to DeFi protocols.

EBA lists suitability checks as an possibility for crypto lending

In September, the European Banking Authority (EBA) urged the Fee to review new guidelines for crypto lending and borrowing, together with when regulated platforms give prospects entry to DeFi lending protocols. It listed suitability checks, which assess whether or not a service is suitable for a buyer, as one option in its consultation response.

Associated: France proposes liability for crypto exchanges offering DeFi access

Van der Stappen stated that extending such checks to different DeFi providers might imply treating a easy stablecoin swap the identical approach as leveraged lending, regardless of their totally different dangers.

Lending, liquidity provision and on-chain swaps can be essentially the most uncovered actions, he stated. Some suppliers could slim their choices and even withdraw DeFi entry altogether.

“A proportionate method can be to permit CASPs [crypto-asset service providers] to proceed providing that entry with safeguards matched to the exercise,” Van der Stappen stated.

Coinbase warns of fragmented liquidity

Van der Stappen stated proscribing entry by way of regulated platforms might break up DeFi liquidity into smaller swimming pools and go away EU customers with worse costs on trades.

He stated the restrictions might encourage “walled gardens,” or remoted DeFi providers, and steer customers towards suppliers outdoors the EU with fewer safeguards.

A 2026 Adan-Ipsos survey found that 49% of French crypto consumers most popular accessing DeFi by way of exchanges, in contrast with 14% who favored private wallets.

A Chainalysis report on Monday attributed a modest decline in crypto exercise in Germany largely to declining decentralized change exercise. Throughout the EU, crypto exercise grew 2.2% within the 12 months by way of June 2026.

A 2025 Chainalysis report described DeFi as a small however rising section of Europe’s crypto market. Within the European Financial Space, Could 2025 was the strongest month for DeFi lending exercise within the interval Chainalysis examined.

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