07 · Crypto-assets

A bridge rule ahead of a framework

The EU legislated conduct first (MiCA: issuance, custody, stablecoin reserves) and prudential treatment second. Art 501d is the second — explicitly transitional: 250% for tokenised traditional assets and ARTs referencing traditional assets, 1250% for everything else, pending transposition of Basel's SCO60. SCO60 itself is the real architecture: Group 1a (tokenised traditional assets — weighted as the underlying, plus a discretionary infrastructure add-on), 1b (stablecoins passing the redemption-risk tests — reserve-based treatment), 2a (unbacked but hedgeable on deep markets — capped recognition of hedging), 2b (the rest — 1250%, i.e. deduction in disguise), with a Group 2 exposure limit: soft at 1% of Tier 1, hard at 2%. The design logic is symmetrical honesty: tokenisation of a bund is a bund; an unbacked token is capitalised as if it can go to zero, because it can.