Malta’s financial regulator explores bringing parts of DeFi under MiCA’s orbit

The MFSA is seeking feedback on whether decentralization should be assessed as a spectrum rather than a binary concept.

Melinda 3 hours ago 3 minutes read

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Malta’s financial regulator explores bringing parts of DeFi under MiCA’s orbit

The MFSA is seeking feedback on whether decentralization should be assessed as a spectrum rather than a binary concept.

By Jamie Crawley, AI Boost|Edited by Omkar Godbole

Jun 18, 2026, 10:43 a.m.

1 min read

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Malta. Credit: Shutterstock — (Shutterstock)

Summary

Malta’s financial regulator is exploring how decentralized finance (DeFi) could fit within the European Union’s MiCA framework.
The MFSA said many DeFi projects retain several centralized features in a discussion paper published Wednesday.
EU’s framework for regulating crypto excludes services provided in a fully decentralized manner, but lacks a clear description of when a protocol or platform meets that threshold.

AI Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy.

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