Isabel Schnabel of the ECB presented three ways to put central bank money on a distributed ledger at the Bank of England on 1 October 2026. The slides rank none of them and set no date for a choice.

The EU securities regulator has told the European Commission how it wants the bloc crypto rulebook rewritten, from influencer marketing to DeFi access. It also names a framework for tokenised securities and on-chain settlement as a longer-term aim.

A supervisory priority is not a rule change. It is a decision about where inspectors look, and from 2027 they will be looking at how firms use tokenisation with customers.

Europe’s central banking system has asked Brussels to tighten the bloc’s crypto rules, one day after the Eurosystem switched on Pontes, its settlement rail for tokenised securities. The European System of Central Banks, which includes the European Central Bank and the national central banks of EU member states, published its response to the European Commission’s review of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, known as MiCA, on Tuesday 22 September. The 57-page response

The ECB launched Pontes on 21 September 2026, letting 13 banks and four DLT platforms settle tokenised asset trades in central bank money, and said it will invest part of its own funds in tokenised bonds. The Bank of England is still testing.

The European Central Bank has begun preparatory work to invest a portion of its own funds directly in tokenised bonds, with every purchase settling in central bank money through Pontes, the settlement system the Eurosystem switched on the same day.

Ten of Europe's largest financial institutions switched on a shared blockchain network for regulated markets on 28 July, and a UK bank is already circling the door.

For UK founders keeping half an eye on whether domestic deal flow is holding up amid a wider debate about Britain's shortage of growth capital, the latest weekly snapshot from Tech.eu offers a genuinely encouraging data point, even if it comes with the usual caveats about lumpy, week to week numbers

Lockheed Martin Ventures, the US defence giant's venture capital arm, opened a London office this week and confirmed it will deploy at least $100 million into UK and European startups, giving founders building sovereign and defence relevant technology a new, well capitalised route to serious capital

Settlement is the least glamorous word in finance and quite possibly the most important. It is the moment a trade actually completes, when cash and asset change hands and the deal becomes real. For decades that moment has taken days, propped up by a chain of intermediaries each taking a cut and addi

From 1 July, the largest crypto exchange in the world stops serving customers across the European Union. Binance has emailed users in Poland, Italy, Spain, France and elsewhere to say it can no longer accept new registrations and will restrict services for EU residents, after failing to secure a lic

For more than a decade the same story has played out at the top of Europe's startup ladder. A company built in London, Paris or Stockholm reaches the stage where it needs hundreds of millions to scale, cannot find a cheque that size at home, and takes one from a United States fund instead, often shi

When the company that safekeeps more than 22 trillion euros of the world's securities decides tokenisation is the future, the interesting part is not the press release. It is the architecture underneath it.

On the same day that two giants of market infrastructure moved deeper into digital assets, a Spanish wholesale custodian quietly switched on crypto custody for other banks. On its own it is a modest announcement. As part of a pattern, it is the story.

Midas and Symbiotic have built an RFQ-based liquidity layer with up to 40 million dollars of capacity, letting investors redeem tokenised assets instantly on chain.

Time is almost up for European crypto-asset businesses operating under MiCA's transitional grace period. On 17 April 2026, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) issued a formal statement, document reference ESMA75-113276571-1679, making clear that the transitional periods under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation will definitively end on 1 July 2026. There will be no further extensions.

Twelve of the largest European banks have chosen Fireblocks to build a MiCA-compliant euro stablecoin through the Qivalis consortium, with a launch targeted for the second half of 2026.

Lise received authorisation from French regulator ACPR, in coordination with the AMF, in late 2025 under the EU DLT Pilot Regime, becoming the first institution in Europe licensed to operate a fully tokenised equity exchange. Unlike hybrid models that tokenise existing securities while keeping legacy infrastructure in place, Lise has built a single on-chain system that combines issuance, trading, settlement, and share registry.

A clear guide to Understanding European Equity Token Rules at a time equity tokens are transforming how startups raise capital and how investors participate in ownership. Before diving into this world, it’s crucial to understand the European equity token rules that govern these digital assets. These rules ensure transparency, protect investors, and create a fair market environment.