Originally reported by ChainCatcher on November 12, 2026, at 20:30 (UTC+8).
Coinbase’s EU policy lead, Roeland Van der Stappen, warned that tighter EU rules for access to decentralized finance (DeFi) could lead regulated crypto platforms to restrict or remove those services. He told Cointelegraph that users might then turn to providers with fewer investor protections. That is his assessment of a potential outcome, not an enacted restriction.
In September 2026, the European Securities and Markets Authority proposed a new regulated category of crypto service for firms that give customers access to DeFi protocols, in its response to a European Commission consultation on MiCA. The European Banking Authority separately urged the Commission to examine new rules for crypto lending, listing suitability tests as one option.
Van der Stappen argued that extending such tests to other DeFi services could treat a simple stablecoin swap like leveraged lending despite their different risks. He identified lending, liquidity provision and on-chain swaps as the activities most likely to be affected. He also warned that restrictions through regulated platforms could split DeFi liquidity into smaller pools, worsen prices for EU users and steer them toward providers outside the EU with fewer safeguards. These are projected effects, not reported changes in market access.
As context, a 2026 Adan-Ipsos survey found that 49% of French crypto buyers preferred accessing DeFi through an exchange, compared with 14% who preferred a personal wallet. Chainalysis attributed a slight decline in German crypto activity mainly to reduced decentralized-exchange activity; it reported that overall EU crypto activity grew 2.2% in the 12 months through June 2026.