Future of Banking & Digital Assets Roundtable

On April 17, BlackVogel co-organised a closed-door roundtable alongside the MiCA Crypto Alliance and NORM, bringing together 35+ senior professionals from banks, central banks, regulators, and digital asset infrastructure providers at TheMerode in Brussels.

 

The session opened with a keynote from Peter Kerstens (European Commission, DG FISMA), who offered a regulatory perspective on MiCA's implementation trajectory and the Commission's expectations for the banking sector. His remarks set the tone for a day of frank, practitioner-level exchange, not about whether banks will engage with digital assets, but how.

 

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What We Discussed

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The roundtable was structured around two panel discussions and two research presentations, drawing on the MiCA Crypto Alliance's recently published reports: Future of Banking & Digital Assets and Legal Classification of Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs) in the EU.

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MiCA Readiness: From Policy to Practice

 

The first panel addressed what MiCA implementation actually looks like on the ground. While institutions broadly understand the regulatory requirements, the discussion surfaced a set of persistent operational challenges:

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• DORA as a bottleneck. Banks reported that crypto service providers and vendors often lack the documentation and resilience standards expected under the Digital Operational Resilience Act, creating friction in onboarding and due diligence processes.

• AML tooling gaps. Current transaction monitoring tools frequently flag legitimate crypto transfers as suspicious, generating high false-positive rates that strain compliance teams.

• Travel Rule execution. While the requirement is clear, implementation across jurisdictions and counterparties remains operationally messy — particularly for cross-border transfers.

• Inconsistent NCA interpretation. National competent authorities across the EU are reading MiCA requirements differently, adding complexity for institutions operating in multiple jurisdictions.

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Token Listing & Classification: Toward Shared Standards

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The second panel explored whether the industry can align on common frameworks for evaluating and categorising digital assets. A Token Taxonomy Framework was presented, proposing a structured approach to classification that goes beyond labels — focusing instead on the mechanism design of each asset (minting, redemption, yield distribution) to determine which regulatory regime applies.

Participants discussed the practical challenge of token listing decisions: what constitutes "sufficient liquidity"? How many blockchain "hops" should sanctions screening cover? How should banks assess tokens that sit across multiple regulatory categories? These are questions where best practices are still being invented, and the conversation made clear that collaborative forums are essential to developing them.

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The Training Gap

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A recurring theme across both panels was the lack of practical, bank-specific training on digital asset operations. The sector needs guidance grounded in real compliance and operational workflows — not generic blockchain introductions or developer-oriented courses. This finding echoed results from the MCA's own survey of banking professionals, and reinforced the case for the dedicated training initiative BlackVogel is developing in this space.

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The Bottom Line

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The EU banking sector is actively engaging with digital assets, but implementation is uneven. The gap is no longer one of awareness or intent — it is one of execution, coordination, and operational infrastructure. Closing it requires exactly the kind of cross-institutional, regulator-inclusive dialogue that this roundtable was designed to create.

At BlackVogel, we work at the intersection of regulation, strategy, and execution — supporting institutions as they navigate the complexities of digital asset integration across jurisdictions.

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Institutions Represented

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Austrian Central Bank, Banka Slovenije, BlackVogel, Bocconi University, ChainComply, Crypto Finance Group, DAAvern, Embassy of Liechtenstein, Euroclear, European Commission (DG FISMA), Exponential Science, Government of Bermuda, Hauck Aufhäuser Asset Servicing, MiCA Crypto Alliance, NORM, Nordic Blockchain Association, Standard Chartered, Swiss Finance Council, TheMerode, TP ICAP, V-Bank AG, YouHodler