The European Banking Authority (EBA) announced on October 14 that it has classified USDC, issued by Circle’s European entity, as a significant e-money token (EMT) under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). The EU currently has 45 EMTs notified under MiCA, and USDC is the first to cross the “significance” threshold. From November 12, 2026, USDC will fall under the dual supervision MiCA provides for significant EMTs: direct supervisory duties for own funds, reserve assets, liquidity requirements and recovery and redemption plans will transfer from France’s Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR) to the EBA, while the ACPR continues to oversee governance, qualifying holdings, fit-and-proper assessment, outsourcing and conflicts of interest.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has issued a call for evidence on whether and under what conditions EU central counterparties (CCPs) can safely and effectively use tokenized collateral, covering digital twins of traditional assets, natively issued onchain assets and hybrid models, with a focus on the liquidity of tokenized collateral in a clearing member default, client asset segregation and settlement finality. Responses are due by January 15, 2027, and ESMA will assess feedback in Q1 2027 before deciding next steps. At the end of June, Europe’s largest clearinghouses held around EUR510 billion in initial margin, roughly a third of it at EU-based CCPs.

Ant Digital Technologies and HSBC announced the completion of a technical validation test for AI-agent micropayments: AI agents can discover and invoke digital services on behalf of users and complete payments in a single step, typically under $2 per transaction, with real-time settlement. In the test, HSBC’s Tokenized Deposit Service (TDS) provided settlement and real-time risk control via an MCP interface, Ant Digital’s Anvita Flow handled service invocation and micropayment settlement, and onchain transactions settled on the Jovay testnet, an Ethereum Layer 2. Both parties stressed the test was exploratory and not a commercial launch. Around the same time, Ant International completed its subscription to the Huaxia RMB Digital Currency Fund — digital RMB assets moved in real time from a China Construction Bank branch in Shanghai to Hong Kong and were used to subscribe in offshore RMB, closing the loop from cross-border digital RMB transfers to offshore RMB asset investment.

Robinhood Crypto posted that it is exploring, with T. Rowe Price Digital Assets — a global asset manager with $1.9 trillion under management — the launch of stock tokens linked to actively managed ETFs on Robinhood Chain, which would be the first such stock token if it succeeds. The collaboration is still exploratory: any launch requires completing legal due diligence, issuer board approval, final terms and regulatory approval in relevant jurisdictions. The same week, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou announced mStocks, a tokenized stock product built with Mantle: fully backed 1:1 by real assets, supporting 24/7 two-way redemption and connected to all AMM liquidity pools in the Mantle ecosystem for DEX trading.