VI3NNA Declaration 2026 Calls for European Digital Asset Infrastructure

The VI3NNA Congress has published the VI3NNA Declaration 2026, a position paper urging Europe to build its own digital asset infrastructure. Industry representatives, regulators and academic partners developed the document following the inaugural VI3NNA Congress, held in Vienna in May. Representatives from digital assets, blockchain, artificial intelligence and regulation took part in the process, supported by an advisory board including Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Vienna), Modul University, the University of Zurich, Bentley University and Boston Consulting Group. Partners included Bluecode, BitMEX, TaxBit and Black Manta Capital Partners. The financial system is being rewritten, and much of it is being built on infrastructure that is not European, said Oliver Schmitt, managing director of VI3NNA Congress. The issue is not that Europe lacks talent or capital, its that we are not making use of the assets we already have. Key Findings The Declaration cites market data showing global stablecoins have surpassed USD 320 billion in market capitalization and processed USD 33 trillion in transaction volume over the past year, with the euro accounting for less than 1% of that volume. Tokenized real-world assets are projected to reach USD 16 trillion by 2030. Employment in Europes digital asset sector has fallen from about 100,000 to around 10,000 jobs in three years, and venture capital investment has dropped 70%. The Declaration is built around four central conclusions: Tokenization alone does not create liquidity capital efficiency is achieved in the post-trade layer through mechanisms such as netting. Europes regulatory framework is comprehensive but costly and fragmented; some firms allocate up to half their compliance workforce to anti-money-laundering obligations. Claims about AI adoption in banking are often overstated, though measurable gains exist in anti-money-laundering use cases. Europe remains internally fragmented despite 41 innovation hubs and 14 regulatory sandboxes across the EU. Where opinions differed, we did not attempt to smooth over those differences, we documented them, said Jana Faschinger, project manager at VI3NNA Congress. Twelve Measures Prioritized by Feasibility The Declaration proposes 12 measures grouped by timeline. Short-term steps include a European onboarding portal for compliance and tax reporting and a clearer regulatory test for decentralized finance. Medium-term proposals cover a post-trade settlement sandbox and euro-denominated settlement assets as eligible collateral. Longer-term measures call for a Digital Asset Innovation Corridor and regulatory recognition agreements with the United States, the Gulf region and Singapore. The Economic Opportunity Citing the Draghi Report, the Letta Report and International Monetary Fund analyses, the authors estimate the measures could unlock EUR 300800 billion in cumulative GDP by 2035, anchor up to EUR 450 billion of value on European infrastructure, and help rebuild more than 100,000 jobs lost in the sector. Next Steps The Declaration will be updated annually through working groups, a policy dialogue with EU consultations, an academic research function, and international outreach, with the next edition due at VI3NNA Congress 2027. The full VI3NNA Declaration 2026 More Information available on the official website