The EU's DLT Pilot Cap: EUR 6 Billion Today, EUR 100 Billion Proposed, and a Ministers' Meeting on 9 October
The Commission wants to lift the DLT Pilot venue cap from EUR 6 billion to EUR 100 billion. EU finance ministers meet on 9 October. What changes for issuers.
Executive Summary
The European Commission has proposed to raise the aggregate cap on a DLT Pilot venue from EUR 6 billion to EUR 100 billion, to delete the per-instrument size limits, to open the regime to all financial instruments, and to let crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) take part. On 9 October 2026 the EU finance ministers (ECOFIN) are invited to agree the Council’s position on the package that carries these changes. On the DLT side, the Council Presidency’s June report names one main open point: the exact level of the venue cap.
For an issuer of tokenized securities this is a question about where an instrument can trade and settle, how large those venues may grow, and how soon. Not this year: if the proposal is adopted as drafted, its DLT Pilot articles apply 12 months after entry into force.
This text was written on 1 October 2026. Everything about 9 October is expected, not reported.
Key Takeaways
- The Commission proposal of 4 December 2025 would raise the aggregate cap per DLT venue from EUR 6 billion to EUR 100 billion, about 17 times higher, and delete the per-instrument limits.
- The Pilot would extend to all financial instruments, a simplified regime would serve operators up to EUR 10 billion, and the six-year limit on permissions would go.
- A Council position on 9 October would not change the law. Parliament and Council still have to agree a final text.
- The June Presidency report shows broad support for the direction and a dispute over one figure and over who may adjust it later.
- The Pilot regulates venues. It gives an issuer no permission.
What We Read, and What We Did Not
We read Regulation (EU) 2022/858, the Commission proposal COM(2025) 943 and its Q&A, the Council Presidency progress report 10735/26, the Council’s page for 9 October, the Parliament’s Legislative Observatory file and ESMA’s 2025 report on the Pilot. We did not review the draft report of the Parliament’s ECON committee (PE789.866) or the amendments tabled in July, so we make no claim about where Parliament stands on the threshold. The dates 9 October (Council target) and 15 October (report to the European Council) come from a secondary source, Eunews of 10 July 2026. The Council’s page confirms the 9 October agenda item; we found no Council document confirming 15 October.
This is general information, not legal advice. Where we give a view, we mark it: “by our reading”.
Why 9 October Matters
The Market Integration and Supervision Package (MISP) is the Commission’s proposal of 4 December 2025. The DLT changes sit in COM(2025) 943 (procedure 2025/0383(COD)), where Article 8 amends Regulation (EU) 2022/858, the DLT Pilot Regulation. The Council page for the 9 October meeting in Luxembourg says the Council “will be invited to agree its position” on the package. That sets the Council side of the negotiation; it does not change the law.
The package is wide. Eunews reported in July that Member States still differed over the role of ESMA, the EU securities regulator, and that the Irish Presidency was aiming for agreement by early October. We cannot tell from public documents whether the DLT chapter moves as fast. If no position is reached, the next ECOFIN meetings are 9 November and 11 December 2026.
By our reading, 9 October is the first public moment when the size of the future market is priced in a number rather than in a speech. With the per-instrument caps and the time limit gone, the venue-level total becomes the main gate left. That is why we follow one figure, not the whole package.
What the Pilot Is Today, and Why It Stayed Small
Regulation (EU) 2022/858 has applied since 23 March 2023. It lets three kinds of infrastructure operate under a specific permission, with temporary exemptions from rules written for non-DLT systems: a DLT multilateral trading facility (DLT MTF), a DLT settlement system (DLT SS), and a combined DLT trading and settlement system (DLT TSS). A permission is valid for up to six years (Articles 8 to 10).
Article 3(1) limits what these venues may admit or record: shares of an issuer with a market capitalization below EUR 500 million, bonds with an issue size below EUR 1 billion (excluding bonds that embed a derivative or a structure the client would find hard to understand), and UCITS units with assets under management below EUR 500 million. Under Article 3(2) the aggregate market value on one venue may not exceed EUR 6 billion, and at EUR 9 billion the operator must start its transition strategy (Article 3(3)).
ESMA’s report of 25 June 2025 counted three authorized infrastructures at 31 May 2025 (CSD Prague, 21X AG and 360X AG) and found minimal live trading. It concluded that the thresholds restrict wider participation. Treat three as a mid-2025 count; we did not recheck the current list.
What the Proposal Changes Against the Current Regulation
| Item | Regulation (EU) 2022/858 today | Commission proposal COM(2025) 943 |
|---|---|---|
| Per-instrument limits | Article 3(1): shares under EUR 500 million market cap, bonds under EUR 1 billion issue size, UCITS units under EUR 500 million AUM | Article 3(1) deleted |
| Aggregate cap per venue | Article 3(2): EUR 6 billion | EUR 100 billion |
| Transition strategy | Triggered at EUR 9 billion | Triggered at EUR 150 billion (regular regime) |
| Smaller operators | No equivalent | New Article 7a: simplified regime while the aggregate stays at or below EUR 10 billion |
| Eligible instruments | Shares, bonds, UCITS units | All financial instruments, subject to investor protection rules |
| Venue types | DLT MTF, DLT SS, DLT TSS | DLT trading venue (an MTF or an OTF), DLT SS, DLT TSS |
| Who may take part | Investment firms, regulated market operators and CSDs | CASPs authorized to operate a crypto-asset trading platform may also take part |
| Length of permission | Up to six years from issuance | Time limits removed (recital 90; Q&A, question 41) |
| Thresholds later | Fixed in the text of Article 3 | Commission keeps the power to adapt them (Q&A, question 42) |
| When it applies | In force since 23 March 2023 | 12 months after entry into force (Article 15); entry into force is the twentieth day after publication |
Three rows deserve a second look.
The venue cap becomes the gate. Today an issue above the instrument-level lines cannot be admitted to a DLT MTF or recorded on a DLT SS. Under the proposal, instrument size stops being the test, and a venue may not admit a new instrument if that would push the aggregate to the cap. The cap rises from EUR 6 billion to EUR 100 billion and the transition trigger from EUR 9 billion to EUR 150 billion, each about 17 times.
The simplified regime is a post-trade regime. Article 7a is written for smaller settlement and trading-and-settlement operators that expect their recorded instruments to stay below EUR 10 billion. It requires an underlying authorization (investment firm, market operator, CASP or CSD) and switches off a list of CSD Regulation provisions to fit the scale. The draft still carries a bracketed EUR 15 billion for the simplified regime’s transition trigger, which suggests that number is not settled.
Permissions stop expiring. Recital 90 gives the reason: to remove ambiguity about the Pilot’s long-term viability. For anyone building a venue this may matter more than the cap.
The Record View
Stobox Intelligence is built around one rule: a datapoint is a record with a value, a source document and a date. A legislative timeline fits it. The event is ECOFIN on 9 October 2026, the stage is “Council position”, and the basis document is the Council’s press release. When it appears, a new dated record citing that text updates the stage: the record is updated, not overwritten.
Where the Council and the Parliament Stand
Council. The Cyprus Presidency’s progress report of 24 June 2026 (document 10735/26) records broad support for extending the Pilot to all types of financial instruments, with safeguards where retail investors access complex instruments directly. It records support for OTFs, for CASPs “subject to further tightening the envisaged exemptions, in order to further align with MiFID”, for the simplified regime, and for a faster route to the regular regime for existing participants. Then it names the open point: “The main outstanding issue is the exact level of the aggregate market value threshold.” Some Member States back EUR 100 billion. Others favor a higher or two-tier threshold, or EUR 100 billion plus ad hoc flexibility for particular firms. Many want clearer criteria for adjusting the threshold by delegated act. The report is the Presidency’s own assessment and does not bind Member States.
Parliament. According to the Legislative Observatory, the committee responsible is ECON, and Markus Ferber (EPP) was appointed rapporteur on 15 January 2026. A committee draft report (PE789.866) is dated 11 June 2026, and amendments were tabled on 31 July 2026. On 1 October the file’s stage read “Awaiting committee decision”. We did not review the content.
By our reading, the dispute has narrowed to one figure and to who may adjust it later. For an issuer, the question moves from “will the regime widen?” to “how large, and with what exceptions?”. The Council’s position on 9 October may differ from the June report. After both positions come trilogue negotiations, a final text, publication and the 12-month application period, so a venue operating under the amended Pilot is not a 2026 event.
What This Means for an Issuer
The Pilot regulates market infrastructures and their operators. Article 1 lists permissions, exemptions, operation and supervision of those infrastructures. It lists no issuer obligations, and the proposal adds none. What changes for an issuer is the venue side:
- Size stops excluding you. Today a share issuer above EUR 500 million of market capitalization, a bond above EUR 1 billion or a UCITS fund above EUR 500 million of assets cannot be admitted at all. Under the proposal those lines go.
- More instrument types become possible, probably with retail safeguards for complex ones.
- A venue still has to exist. A larger cap and permanent permissions make the business case for more venues stronger. They do not create one.
- Classification stays separate. The Pilot applies only to instruments that already are financial instruments (Article 2(11) and (12)). Crypto-assets that are not financial instruments fall under MiCA, which excludes financial instruments in its Article 2(4). Prospectus duties are separate too: recital 2 of the Pilot Regulation lists the Prospectus Regulation among the rules that “potentially apply” to issuers of crypto-assets that qualify as financial instruments.
By our reading, the practical effect is on timing and options, not on obligations. An issuer whose structure needs a DLT venue should treat the amended Pilot as an option that arrives only after trilogues plus the 12-month application period, and keep a plan that works under today’s rules or outside the Pilot.
Design Note: Stobox Orbit
Stobox Orbit, a permissioned tokenization protocol, is in development and running on testnet. A venue or a regulator may ask a token to restrict who can hold it, freeze a balance or produce a record. Orbit is designed to prepare the token for that. It is not a venue: its documents describe token contracts, a register and transfer checks, not a trading or settlement system.
Orbit is designed so that every movement of value passes through one hook, which checks in a fixed order: pause, trusted-party status, sender and receiver eligibility, frozen balance, then a replaceable rule set. A refusal returns a named reason. For a fund, the protocol records a register mode: the chain is the register of record, or it mirrors the registrar’s register, with mirror as the default until confirmed jurisdiction by jurisdiction. The register is pseudonymous: no identifying data sits on chain. Orbit’s rule catalogue marks the Commission proposal as not law, so nothing is built on it. Nothing here states compliance or regulatory status.
What to Do on Monday 5 October
- Place your instrument against today’s lines. Is your share issuer below EUR 500 million of market capitalization, your bond below EUR 1 billion of issue size, your UCITS fund below EUR 500 million of assets, as Article 3(1) reads now? That tells you whether the current Pilot could admit you at all.
- Check the venue list yourself. Open the current ESMA list before any plan assumes a venue.
- Pick the one line to read on 9 October. In the Council’s documents, find the aggregate threshold and whether the position names a delegated-act route for changing it.
- Plan on the proposal’s calendar, not on the press. It applies 12 months after entry into force, after trilogues. Carry that date and a fallback.
- Write down what the Pilot does not answer. Token classification, the prospectus position and the issuer’s governance sit outside it. Keep them in one file so a venue decision does not quietly settle them.
What to Watch on 9 October and After
These are indicators, not forecasts. The source is the Council’s own documents and press release after the meeting.
| Observation | What it suggests |
|---|---|
| Position adopted with the EUR 100 billion threshold unchanged | The Commission’s scale stays the baseline for the Parliament talks |
| Higher or two-tier threshold, or an ad hoc route for named firms | The Council leans toward larger venues; read who can apply and who decides |
| Delegated-act criteria made more specific | The number may move after adoption |
| CASPs kept in with tighter exemptions | CASPs can take part, on conditions closer to MiFID |
| Item postponed or no position | Next ECOFIN dates: 9 November and 11 December 2026 |
| ECON vote date appears on the Observatory file | Marks when the Parliament side of the talks can open |
Eunews of 10 July 2026 says ministers aimed to settle the package by 9 October and take it to the European Council on 15 October. We could not confirm that against a Council document.
FAQ
Is the DLT Pilot Regulation changing on 9 October? No. A Council position is one input to the negotiation. A regulation changes only after both institutions agree a text, it is published, and its application date arrives.
Does an issuer need a DLT Pilot permission? No. Permissions go to the operators of DLT market infrastructures. An issuer decides whether and where its instrument is admitted or recorded.
Can a token that is not a financial instrument use the DLT Pilot? Under the current Regulation, no. The proposal would widen the list of operators to CASPs, but the instruments would still have to be financial instruments.
What is the single number to follow? The aggregate market value cap per venue: EUR 6 billion today, EUR 100 billion in the proposal, and the main outstanding issue in the Presidency’s June report.
To follow rules like these with a source and a date on every line, see Stobox Intelligence. Orbit Docs will appear when they are published.
Related reading in this series
- MiCA or MiFID: how to tell which regime your token falls under
- Pontes: central bank money for tokenised securities
- Also in this series, in the coming weeks: EU Inc and the 28th Regime, significant CASPs, commodity RWAs, GDPR and onchain registers, stablecoins against central bank money, and the 2027 scenarios.
Sources
All accessed 1 October 2026.
- Regulation (EU) 2022/858, EUR-Lex: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32022R0858
- Commission proposal COM(2025) 943, 4 December 2025, EUR-Lex: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52025PC0943
- Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCA), Article 2(4), EUR-Lex: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32023R1114
- Commission, Questions and answers on the market integration package, 4 December 2025: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/api/files/document/print/en/qanda_25_2894/QANDA_25_2894_EN.pdf
- European Parliament Legislative Observatory, 2025/0383(COD): https://oeil.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/en/procedure-file?reference=2025/0383(COD)
- Council, ECOFIN 9 October 2026: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/meetings/ecofin/2026/10/09/
- Council document 10735/26, Presidency progress report, 24 June 2026: https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-10735-2026-INIT/en/pdf
- ESMA, Report on the functioning and review of the DLT Pilot Regime, 25 June 2025: https://www.esma.europa.eu/sites/default/files/2025-06/ESMA75-117376770-460_Report_on_the_functioning_and_review_of_the_DLTR_-_Art.14.pdf
- Eunews, 10 July 2026 (secondary source): https://www.eunews.it/en/2026/07/10/financial-markets-ecofin-agrees-to-seek-an-agreement-by-october/
This article is general information, not legal advice. Rules and timelines described here may change.
