Aug. 24, 2025

Fixing Crypto in Europe – with Marina Markezic (EUCI)

Fixing Crypto in Europe – with Marina Markezic (EUCI)
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Fixing Crypto in Europe – with Marina Markezic (EUCI)
Fixing Crypto in Europe – with Marina Markezic (EUCI)
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Traditional finance is moving on-chain. Can Europe keep pace? We sit down with Marina Markezic, co-founder and Executive Director of the European Crypto Initiative (EUCI), to unpack how regulation is shaping the future of blockchain and finance in Europe.

We cover breaking news from Stripe and Circle launching their own layer-ones, ESMA’s push to expand the DLT Pilot Regime, and even the European Central Bank’s exploration of issuing a digital euro on Ethereum or Solana. Marina brings her unique perspective from years of advising projects on governance, DeFi, NFTs, and regulation, as well as lobbying for innovation-friendly frameworks in Brussels.

Expect a deep dive into how European crypto regulation compares to the U.S., the unintended consequences of MiCA, and why tokenization could reshape Europe’s financial infrastructure.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

  • How ESMA wants to expand the DLT Pilot Regime to encourage broader tokenization.

  • Why have only three firms joined the DLT sandbox so far.

  • The hidden risks in Europe’s Data Act and its surprising requirement for smart contracts to be alterable and require backdoors.

  • How lobbying battles in Brussels pit traditional financial institutions against crypto-native builders.

  • The contrasting visions of Europe and the U.S. on stablecoins, CBDCs, and financial market modernization.

  • Why regulatory vision matters more than technical details when shaping the future of finance.

Guest: Marina Markezic

Marina Markezic – Co-founder & Executive Director, of the European Crypto Initiative https://eu.ci Marina has advised blockchain projects since 2017 on governance and regulation, and is a leading voice on European crypto policy.

Follow EUCI on https://www.linkedin.com/company/european-crypto-initiative and https://x.com/EuCInitiative

The Hosts
  • Jón Egilsson is an Executive Member at King’s College London and an Executive Director at Monerium, the first company to issue fiat currency on-chain. https://uk.linkedin.com/in/egilsson
  • Jan Philipp Fritsche Managing Director of Oak Security, a Web3 cybersecurity firm that pioneered research on economic attack vectors in decentralized systems.
    https://www.linkedin.com/in/janf/

Links & Resources