Bruegel warns EU stablecoin caution risks infrastructure dollarisation

Brussels think tank Bruegel has told EU finance ministers that restrictive euro stablecoin policy may entrench dollar settlement across tokenised markets through network effects. The policy brief argues that if tokenised capital markets default to dollar stablecoins for delivery versus payment, margining, and collateral transfers, the euro risks losing operational centrality in digital infrastructure even as it remains the domestic monetary anchor.

Bruegel proposes three counter-measures: accelerate the ECB‘s Project Appia and wholesale central bank digital currency to bridge distributed ledger technology platforms with Eurosystem payment rails; deepen secondary market liquidity for euro stablecoins to match dollar pools; and amend the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation to remove the 30 to 60 per cent bank deposit reserve mandate, permit stablecoin holder remuneration below the policy rate, and grant regulated issuers access to ECB facilities including lender of last resort support.

The timing coincides with the European Commission’s request for comment on MiCA adjustments published this week, which covers overlapping territory. Bruegel’s framing treats settlement infrastructure as geopolitical: once network effects lock in a default collateral asset, the issuing jurisdiction captures the plumbing.

The brief was prepared for an informal meeting of EU finance ministers and central bank governors, signalling that infrastructure dollarisation is moving from academic exercise to live policy agenda.