UniCredit: Europe Can't Contain a Crypto-Bank Crisis Under…

A senior UniCredit official has warned that Europe lacks the crisis tools needed to contain a crypto-linked banking shock, pointing to a structural gap in how MiCA integrates stablecoin issuers with the traditional banking system. Elena Carletti, UniCredit's deputy vice chair and head of the board's risk committee, said European authorities may not be able to guarantee crypto-linked deposits the way U.S. regulators did after the 2023 collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

The core problem: MiCA requires stablecoin reserves to sit in liquid assets like bank deposits and government securities, pulling issuers closer to the banking system — but without extending deposit insurance beyond the EU's €100,000 per-depositor limit. When SVB failed in March 2023, Circle disclosed that $3.3 billion of USDC reserves were held at the bank. USDC briefly lost its dollar peg before U.S.