In a coordinated effort that underscores the growing importance of digital asset infrastructure across the continent, a coalition of major market operators—including Nasdaq, the Stuttgart Stock Exchange (Börse Stuttgart), and several other prominent financial institutions—has formally petitioned the European Union to either eliminate the existing ceiling on tokenised assets or, at a minimum, increase it substantially. The request comes as part of a broader dialogue about the regulatory framework governing the emerging field of tokenisation, a process that converts real‑world assets—such as securities, commodities, real estate, or even intellectual property—into digital tokens that can be transferred, stored, and traded on blockchain‑based platforms.
The coalition’s position is rooted in practical experience gathered from a number of pilot projects that have been running under the current EU‑wide cap, which limits the total value of assets that can be tokenised within the experimental sandbox. According to the group’s statement, several of these projects have already reached, and in some cases exceeded, the prescribed limit, thereby hampering their ability to scale, attract additional investors, and fully demonstrate the potential efficiencies that tokenisation promises.
The participants argue that the cap, originally intended as a precautionary measure to mitigate systemic risk while regulators assess the technology, now acts as an unintended barrier to innovation. Tokenisation is widely hailed as a transformative technology for the financial sector.
By representing assets as cryptographically secured digital tokens, market participants can achieve near‑instant settlement, fractional ownership, enhanced liquidity, and greater transparency. For example, a tokenised real‑estate investment could allow a broader pool of investors to purchase small slices of a property, something that traditional real‑estate markets have struggled to facilitate due to high transaction costs and regulatory hurdles.
Similarly, tokenised securities can be settled on a distributed ledger in seconds rather than days, reducing counterparty risk and operational overhead. Despite these advantages, regulators have taken a cautious approach.
The EU’s Markets in Crypto‑Assets (MiCA) framework, along with other national guidelines, currently imposes a ceiling on the total value of assets that can be tokenised within sandbox environments. The cap was set at a relatively modest figure when the pilot programmes were first launched, reflecting an intent to keep exposure limited while the supervisory bodies gathered data on market behaviour, risk management practices, and technology resilience. However, as the coalition points out, the landscape has evolved rapidly. Nasdaq, a global leader in exchange services, has been experimenting with tokenised equities and debt instruments, reporting that the cap constrains the volume of trades they can process and the diversity of products they can offer to institutional clients.
Börse Stuttgart, which has a strong focus on retail investors and has introduced a tokenised bond platform, notes that several of its pilot issuances have already breached the cap, forcing the project team to either pause further issuance or seek special exemptions—both of which add administrative complexity and delay market development. Other members of the coalition echo similar concerns.
A leading European fintech firm involved in tokenising art and collectibles highlighted that the cap prevents them from aggregating enough assets to create a viable, liquid market for fractional ownership. Meanwhile, a consortium of banks testing tokenised syndicated loans reported that the cap limits the total loan exposure they can tokenise, reducing the attractiveness of the pilot for both borrowers and lenders. The coalition’s request to the EU is therefore two‑fold: first, to lift the cap entirely, allowing tokenisation pilots to operate without a predefined ceiling; second, if a complete removal is deemed premature, to raise the limit to a level that reflects the actual scale of ongoing projects and the projected growth of the sector. They argue that a higher cap would not only enable existing pilots to reach their full potential but also encourage new participants to join the sandbox, fostering competition, innovation, and the development of best‑practice standards.
In support of their position, the coalition has provided a series of data points and case studies. One notable example is a tokenised green bond issuance that, under the current cap, could only be partially tokenised, limiting the amount of capital raised for sustainable projects. By increasing the cap, the full bond amount could be tokenised, attracting a broader investor base, including retail participants who are increasingly interested in ESG‑aligned investments. Furthermore, the coalition stresses that a higher cap would improve the quality of regulatory feedback.
With a larger and more diverse set of transactions occurring within the sandbox, supervisors would gain richer insights into how tokenised markets function under stress, how liquidity behaves, and how systemic risk can be managed. This, in turn, would enable the EU to craft more nuanced, proportionate regulations that support innovation while safeguarding market stability. Critics of raising the cap often cite concerns about investor protection and the potential for market abuse.
The coalition acknowledges these risks but argues that they can be mitigated through robust governance frameworks, enhanced AML/KYC procedures, and real‑time monitoring tools that are already being integrated into many pilot platforms. They also point out that the sandbox environment itself is designed to be a controlled space where regulators can intervene quickly if necessary.
In conclusion, the petition submitted by Nasdaq, Börse Stuttgart, and their partners reflects a maturing ecosystem that is ready to move beyond the initial precautionary limits. By either removing or substantially increasing the tokenisation cap, the EU would empower market participants to fully explore the efficiencies, inclusivity, and sustainability benefits that digital tokens can deliver.
The coalition urges policymakers to act promptly, emphasizing that the window of opportunity to lead the global tokenisation market is narrowing as other jurisdictions—such as the United States, Singapore, and several Asian economies—continue to relax their own restrictions and attract innovative projects. A decisive regulatory adjustment now could cement Europe’s position at the forefront of the digital finance revolution.