Nasdaq, Börse Stuttgart urge EU to lift €100bn DLT cap

Nasdaq, Börse Stuttgart Group and a coalition of market infrastructure firms wrote to members of the European Parliament and the Council asking them to reconsider a proposed €100 billion cap on the EU’s Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) Pilot Regime. The groups requested that the limit be removed or set at €1.5 trillion.

Under the European Commission’s Market Integration and Supervision Package (MISP), the DLT Pilot Regime cap would increase from €6 billion to up to €100 billion. Signatories to the letter say that level is too low to support the scaling of tokenised capital markets in Europe.

The letter, signed by firms including Axiology, France Fintech and the Crypto Council for Innovation alongside major market operators, noted several European tokenisation projects already hold roughly €350 billion in assets and plan further expansion. The coalition warned a €100 billion ceiling could limit those projects and future initiatives.

The groups proposed either removing the cap entirely or adopting a €1.5 trillion baseline and including a mechanism that would allow the Commission to raise the limit as market volumes grow.

The DLT Pilot Regime allows firms to test issuance, trading and settlement of tokenised securities within a regulated environment. A cap on eligible asset value determines how large those tests can be; industry supporters argue a higher or absent cap would enable broader participation from institutional investors and market operators while remaining under regulatory oversight.

Marius Jurgilas, chief executive of Axiology, wrote: “A €100 billion ceiling may look generous on paper, but for market infrastructure it could quickly become a brake on investment and scale. The EU has an opportunity to give regulated DLT markets the headroom to compete globally, while making sure new entrants are playing by the same rules as incumbent infrastructure.”

Members of the European Parliament and the Council will decide between the €100 billion proposal in MISP and the industry-backed alternatives. Any change to the cap will affect the scale of tokenisation trials in Europe and the ability of regulated DLT platforms to attract capital.