Nasdaq, Boerse Stuttgart Urge EU to Scrap Tokenized Securities Cap

A coalition of European financial institutions and market infrastructure firms is urging EU policymakers to remove or significantly increase the cap on tokenized securities within the DLT Pilot Regime. The group, which includes Nasdaq and Boerse Stuttgart, warns that current regulatory limits are too restrictive to support the scaling of the tokenization market.

The industry groups are specifically pushing back against a proposed 100 billion-euro cap on tokenized securities. While the European Commission's Market Integration and Supervision Package (MISP) suggested raising the existing limit from 6 billion euros to 100 billion euros, the coalition argues this is still insufficient. As a fallback measure, the groups have proposed a ceiling of at least 1.5 trillion euros if the cap cannot be removed entirely.

The DLT Bottleneck

The EU's DLT Pilot Regime was established to allow for the controlled testing of distributed ledger technology for the trading and settlement of securities. Historically, the regime operated with a 6 billion-euro cap on the total value of securities listed on a venue. However, as the market for Real World Assets (RWA) and tokenized securities expands, these regulatory ceilings have become a primary bottleneck for institutional adoption. The industry argues that the transition from a small-scale trial to a viable financial ecosystem requires a regulatory framework that can accommodate trillions in assets rather than billions.

Global Competitive Risks

Maintaining a low cap risks pushing financial innovation and liquidity toward other jurisdictions. The coalition suggests that regions such as the United States and South Korea are integrating tokenized securities more aggressively, potentially leaving European capital markets behind. By removing or drastically raising the cap, the EU would signal a strategic shift from a limited 'pilot' phase to a full-scale institutional embrace of DLT. This move is seen as essential for maintaining the competitiveness of European financial hubs in a digital-first global economy.

Next Steps for the Regime

Policymakers must now decide whether to accept the industry's 1.5 trillion-euro fallback or scrap the limits entirely to foster growth. The outcome will determine whether the DLT Pilot Regime remains a restricted experiment or evolves into a permanent pillar of European financial infrastructure. Market participants are now watching for the EU's response to the MISP proposals and whether the Commission will prioritize institutional scale over the cautious constraints of the original pilot.