Rich by Coin

The European blockchain regulatory sandbox is a European Commission initiative that created a pan-European framework for cross-border regulatory dialogues between blockchain/DLT innovators and regulators at national and EU levels. It aimed to raise legal clarity for innovative DLT applications and to foster regulatory best practices to support compliant and effective oversight. From 2023 to 2026, the project organized three annual cohorts of 20 use cases each, producing Best Practices Reports after each round. The third cohort ran from July to December 2025, and the final Best Practices Report was published on February 11, 2026, with Bird & Bird as lead contractor and support from OXYGY, Warren Brandeis, and Spindox.

An open call for tenders in 2022 procured the project, and a panel of independent academics—Professor Roman Beck, Professor Soulla Louca, and Professor Walter Blocher—oversaw the selection and award process for the cohorts. Between 2023 and 2026, regulators from across the EU/EEA participated in dialogues covering topics from GDPR and the AI Act to data governance, cybersecurity, AML/KYC, and financial services regulation. Across the three rounds, about 125 authorities and regulators contributed to discussions for a total of 60 use cases, with participation across all EU/EEA regions and sectors.

Best Practices Reports captured the lessons, best practices, and recommendations identified during the confidential dialogues and were published only with participant consent and without links to individual use cases. The final report notes topics including battery passports, digital product passports, EHDS, DGA, AI, NIS2, CRA, CSA, DSA, and MiCAR, alongside evolving data protection and eIDAS frameworks. The project demonstrated that cross-border regulatory dialogues can deepen understanding, harmonize practices, and promote compliance by design, while highlighting the need to monitor evolving EU frameworks. It concluded that regulatory sandboxes can accelerate innovation in the EU/EEA and stressed ongoing monitoring of data protection, digital identity, cybersecurity, product and data governance, and financial regulation to guide future regulatory dialogues.