MiCA Does Not Regulate DeFi: The Legal Vacuum Surrounding Decentralized Finance

MiCA has been fully applicable since July 1, 2026: any crypto platform serving European clients must be licensed under penalty of illegality. But the regulation stops at the door of decentralized finance (DeFi). A user of Uniswap or Aave is not protected by any of its rules and does not always know it. The European framework is now the only one in force. But MiCA does not regulate decentralized finance (DeFi), and this boundary was intentionall…