Bird & Bird, OXYGY and the European Commission publish final Best Practice Report for the European Blockchain Sandbox

The cohort sessions were held during the second half of 2025. The report published today presents the wide-ranging insights, best practices and recommendations identified throughout these discussions.

The publication of this report marks a significant milestone for the European Blockchain Sandbox, representing the successful completion, between 2023 and 2026, of 20 cross-border regulatory dialogues per year between innovators, regulators and legislators. The innovative use cases selected across the three Sandbox cohorts cover blockchain/Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) as well as other emerging technologies (e.g. AI, IoT and cloud computing) used in combination.

During the dialogues, a broad range of regulatory areas was addressed, from data protection and data regulation, cybersecurity and the AI Act to financial services regulation, including the regulation of crypto-assets and token projects across various industries.

The European Blockchain Sandbox demonstrates the value of regulatory sandboxes for emerging technologies, whose providers often face legal uncertainty due to evolving regulatory frameworks. By bringing together real-life use cases, national authorities, EU legislators and regulators within a single ecosystem, a regulatory sandbox provides clarity on how different regulatory regimes interact in the context of DLT deployment and enhances legal certainty to foster innovation.

The full report and executive summary (in English and French) are available here.

Marjolein Geus, Partner at Bird & Bird, commented: “By bringing together innovators, national regulatory authorities and EU regulators within a single cross-border framework, the Sandbox has helped clarify the interplay between different regulatory regimes and strengthen legal certainty to support innovation. We thank the European Commission, OXYGY and all participants for their collaboration. We hope these insights will inform future policy and support innovators in scaling with confidence.”

Edoardo Monopoli, Chief Executive at OXYGY, added: “Supporting the Sandbox dialogues alongside Bird & Bird and the European Commission has demonstrated how structured collaboration can turn regulatory complexity into practical clarity. The final report of the last cohort consolidates actionable best practices drawn from 60 real-life use cases; we extend our thanks to all participants. OXYGY remains committed to helping innovators apply these insights and scale responsibly across Europe.”

The third Best Practice Report was presented on 11 February 2026 during a public webinar. During the webinar, the Sandbox team provided an overview of the regulatory best practices identified in Cohort 3 and answered questions from participants.

The “Most Innovative Regulator Award” was also announced during the webinar. The award was presented by an independent expert jury composed of Professor Roman Beck (Bentley University, USA, formerly IT University of Copenhagen), Professor Soulla Louca (University of Nicosia, Cyprus) and Professor Walter Blocher (University of Kassel). In recognition of their outstanding and innovative contributions during the discussions of the third cohort, the award was granted to:

• BfDI (Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, Germany)

• CNMV (National Securities Market Commission, Spain)

• Bank of Spain (Banco de España)

• KNB (Royal Dutch Association of Civil-law Notaries)

• Office for Digital Innovation (Austria)

• ANSSI (French National Agency for the Security of Information Systems)

• ARCEP (French Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications, Postal Affairs and Print Media Distribution)

A heartfelt thank you to all innovators, regulatory authorities and network partners whose contributions made these dialogues such a success.

Background

The European Blockchain Sandbox was an initiative of the European Commission aimed at creating a pan-European framework for regulatory dialogue. The objective of the Sandbox was to increase legal certainty in relation to blockchain/DLT applications and thereby support a robust regulatory environment in the EU/EEA for this emerging technology sector.

Launched in 2022 through an open call for tender, the initiative was implemented by a consortium led by Bird & Bird and its consultancy arm OXYGY, together with blockchain experts from Warren Brandeis.

The selection of use cases was validated by an independent panel of academic experts (Professor Roman Beck, Professor Soulla Louca and Professor Walter Blocher). The IT infrastructure was supported by Spindox.

Over a three-year period (2023–2026), the consortium organised and facilitated the establishment and implementation of three separate Sandbox cohorts, covering the entire process from a rigorous application and selection procedure for blockchain/DLT use cases, to engagement with the relevant regulatory authorities, moderation of dialogue meetings and the collection of numerous best practices.

The best practices and insights gathered, relevant to the entire blockchain/DLT community in the EU/EEA, were documented in dedicated reports for each cohort.

Sophie Stevenard