European legislation passed last year has created a significant regulatory advantage for tokenization, with EU banks able to handle tokenized traditional assets far more favorably than many global counterparts.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) this week published final technical standards that largely follow guidance from the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) and mainly apply to cryptocurrencies. The underlying EU legislation overrides this conservative approach for tokenized traditional assets. This legislative framework explicitly treats any exposure to “tokenised traditional assets” the same as exposure to traditional assets, with no qualifications.
The contrast with other jurisdictions is stark. While EU banks can treat tokenized securities on any blockchain type without additional capital requirements, banks following Basel Committee directions face the maximum 1250% risk weighting for similar exposures on permissionless networks. The treatment of stablecoins presents an even more intriguing regulatory divergence.
This regulatory split positions Europe as uniquely favorable for institutional tokenization efforts, potentially accelerating the digitization of traditional financial instruments and establishing the region as a global tokenization hub.
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