What is MiCA?

Introduction

MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, Regulation EU 2023/1114) is the European Union's first comprehensive, directly applicable regulatory framework for crypto-assets. Before MiCA, crypto regulation in the EU was fragmented: every member state applied its own national registration or licensing practice, and there was no single European playbook.

MiCA changes that. It creates one unified authorisation regime – the CASP licence (Crypto-Asset Service Provider) – which lets a crypto company operate in all 30 EU/EEA countries with a single licence granted by its home-state authority. At the same time the regulation brings investor protection, transparency requirements and market-abuse rules that closely resemble traditional financial regulation.

In practice MiCA affects everyone who buys, sells or holds crypto-assets in the EU – even though the rules are aimed primarily at companies rather than retail investors. If blockchain concepts are still new to you, start with our guide to the basics of crypto investing.

The basics of MiCA

MiCA was adopted by the European Parliament in April 2023 by a clear majority, and Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 was officially published on 31.05.2023. It is a regulation, not a directive, which means it applies directly in every member state without separate national implementing legislation – one key reason for its harmonising effect.

Part of the political background was Facebook's (Meta's) Libra stablecoin project, announced in 2019, which raised EU concerns that a private, global digital currency could undermine monetary sovereignty. MiCA's stablecoin rules are largely a response to exactly that worry.

A phased entry into force

• 30.06.2024: stablecoin rules (e-money tokens and asset-referenced tokens) became applicable.
• 30.12.2024: rules for crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) became applicable.
• 01.07.2026: national transitional periods ended in all member states – from that date only MiCA-licensed firms may offer crypto services in the EU.

The transitional period was meant to ease previously nationally registered firms into the new regime, and its length varied by member state – in Luxembourg, for example, VASP-registered firms had the maximum 18-month grandfathering window. After 01.07.2026 the transition is over practically everywhere, and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has publicly urged unlicensed operators to wind down their EU activity in an orderly manner.

What does MiCA actually regulate?

MiCA splits into two large blocks: the issuance of crypto-assets (including stablecoins) and the provision of crypto-asset services. Each has its own separate requirements.

Three classes of crypto-assets

• E-money tokens (EMT): crypto-assets whose value is kept stable against a single official currency such as the euro or the dollar. Examples include euro- and dollar-denominated stablecoins such as Circle's USDC and EURC.
• Asset-referenced tokens (ART): crypto-assets stabilised by reference to several currencies, a commodity (for example gold), another crypto-asset, or a combination of these.
• Other crypto-assets: everything that is neither EMT nor ART – including Bitcoin, Ethereum, most other coins, and so-called utility tokens.

Issuers of EMTs and ARTs always need an authorisation from a national supervisor plus an approved white paper describing the token's features, risks and the issuer's obligations. For other crypto-assets the bar is lower: the issuer generally only has to notify a white paper to the competent authority before offering the asset to the public.

The CASP licence – the core of crypto services

A company offering crypto-asset services to EU clients needs a CASP licence. MiCA recognises ten distinct crypto-asset services, and a licence is always granted for specific, named services – not automatically for all of them:

• A. Custody and administration of crypto-assets on behalf of clients
• B. Operation of a trading platform for crypto-assets
• C. Exchange of crypto-assets for funds
• D. Exchange of crypto-assets for other crypto-assets
• E. Execution of orders on behalf of clients
• F. Placing of crypto-assets
• G. Reception and transmission of orders
• H. Advice on crypto-assets
• I. Portfolio management of crypto-assets
• J. Transfer services for crypto-assets

This is an essential detail that often gets blurred in public debate: a MiCA-licensed company is not automatically a "crypto exchange" in the way a consumer understands the term. Many licensees are banks, custodians, asset managers or advisory firms with no public trading platform at all (service B). Actual trading-platform operators are only a subset of licensed firms.

Licensing requirements

• Sufficient own funds, tiered into three classes according to the range of services offered (minimum capital typically EUR 50,000–150,000)
• Segregation of client assets from the firm's own assets
• A functioning and transparent complaints-handling process
• Identification, prevention and disclosure of conflicts of interest
• Reasonable measures to manage outsourcing risk
• An orderly wind-down plan for a possible cessation of business

The licence is always granted by one national competent authority (BaFin in Germany, AMF in France, the FIN-FSA in Finland), but it works on a passporting basis: once granted, it allows the firm to operate across all 30 EU/EEA countries without separate national licences.

Market abuse rules

MiCA also brings prohibitions familiar from traditional securities regulation to crypto markets: insider dealing, unlawful disclosure of inside information and market manipulation are explicitly prohibited in crypto-asset trading. ESMA and national authorities supervise compliance.

Stablecoins under MiCA – the Tether case

MiCA's stablecoin rules took effect on 30.06.2024, and the restriction on CASPs became applicable on 30.12.2024: a MiCA-licensed exchange may no longer offer trading in an e-money token whose issuer lacks MiCA approval.

That rule hit the market's largest stablecoin, Tether's USDT, directly. Tether has not applied for an EMT authorisation in the EU, and the company has publicly stated that MiCA's requirement to hold at least 60% of reserves in EU bank deposits does not fit its current reserve structure. As a result, large EU-regulated exchanges delisted USDT pairs in stages: Coinbase in December 2024, Crypto.com in January 2025, and Kraken and Binance in spring 2025. By early July 2026 no MiCA-licensed exchange offered USDT trading to EU/EEA clients – although holding and self-custodying USDT remained perfectly legal.

Circle's USDC and the euro-denominated EURC have taken Tether's place in the EU market; Circle obtained an electronic money institution licence in France in July 2024. Other MiCA-compliant stablecoins have also appeared, such as Banking Circle's euro-denominated EURI.

MiCA vs. other crypto regulation worldwide

United States (GENIUS Act and CLARITY Act)

The US has moved more piecemeal. The GENIUS Act, effective July 2025, focuses specifically on payment stablecoins and their reserve requirements, while the broader CLARITY Act on crypto market structure advanced in Congress later.

Difference to MiCA: the US approach is more fragmented and product-focused rather than creating one comprehensive licensing regime for all crypto services. MiCA covers both issuance and service provision across the entire EU with a single regulation.

United Kingdom (FCA crypto-asset regime)

The UK's Financial Conduct Authority is building its own phased framework for crypto-assets outside the EU after Brexit. Difference to MiCA: the FCA model leans heavily on existing financial services legislation and progresses nationally, whereas MiCA is directly applicable and passportable across 30 countries at once.

The previous EU situation (national VASP registers)

Before MiCA, many member states applied national VASP registrations built on the anti-money-laundering directive, with widely varying standards. Difference to MiCA: national registrations did not automatically allow operating in other member states, and the level of regulation could be light. MiCA replaces these fragmented systems with one unified, EU-wide authorisation regime.

Strengths and weaknesses of MiCA

• ✅ One licence with passporting rights across the whole EU/EEA
• ✅ Uniform investor protection and transparency requirements in every member state
• ✅ Clear legal certainty, which makes it easier for institutional players to enter the market
• ✅ The first broad crypto regulation in a major economic area – a model for other jurisdictions
• ✅ A public, centralised ESMA register of licensed firms makes it easy to verify a provider

Practical guide: licensed firms and how to check them

The official, up-to-date source for all MiCA-licensed firms is the centralised register maintained by ESMA, published as CSV files and updated weekly. It is the only fully reliable way to verify a licence, because national authorities report to ESMA at different intervals.

By 10.08.2026 the ESMA register listed 324 licensed CASPs, authorised by 26 national authorities and covering all 30 EU/EEA markets. That figure covers all crypto-asset service providers – not just public trading platforms.

Licences by country (number granted in brackets): Germany (69), France (35), Netherlands (29), Cyprus (25), Malta (22), Spain (15), Luxembourg (13), Ireland (12), Liechtenstein (12), Austria (11), Czechia (11), Latvia (10), Italy (9), Denmark (7), Croatia (6), Lithuania (6), Norway (6), Slovakia (6), Finland (5), Bulgaria (4), Estonia (3), Slovenia (3), Belgium (2), Iceland (1), Portugal (1), Sweden (1). Greece, Hungary, Poland and Romania had not granted a single CASP licence as of August 2026.

Licences also fall into three capital classes by service scope: roughly 60 firms in the lightest class (EUR 50,000 own funds), around 240 in the middle class (EUR 125,000) and about 20 in the widest class that includes operating a trading platform (EUR 150,000). Because the register grows and changes weekly, listing all 324 firms here would be out of date almost immediately.

Well-known MiCA-licensed crypto exchanges (August 2026)

• Coinbase – licensed in Luxembourg (CSSF)
• Kraken – MiCA licensed
• Bitpanda – licensed in Austria (FMA)
• Bitstamp – licensed in Luxembourg (CSSF)
• Crypto.com – licensed in Malta (MFSA)
• Bybit – licensed in Austria (FMA), operating as Bybit EU GmbH
• OKX – licensed through its EU entity
• eToro – licensed in Cyprus (CySEC)
• Bitvavo – licensed in the Netherlands (AFM)
• Blockchain.com – licensed in Malta (MFSA)
• CoinJar – licensed in Ireland (Central Bank of Ireland)
• Coinmerce, Bitonic and BTC Direct – Dutch providers licensed by the AFM

An EU-wide view of the licensing landscape

Germany, France and the Netherlands dominate the register in volume, while Malta, Cyprus, Luxembourg and Ireland host many of the largest international brands through their EU entities. Thanks to passporting, a licence granted in one of those countries covers the whole EU/EEA – so a consumer in a market with few domestic licences can still use a fully regulated exchange licensed elsewhere in the union.

Firms without a MiCA licence (August 2026)

• Binance – withdrew its Greek application in June 2026 and missed the 01.07.2026 deadline; the company has said it will apply in another member state.
• MEXC – no MiCA licence as of August 2026.

Because the register changes constantly, check the current status before making a large deposit. For long-term custody of larger amounts, consider a hardware wallet such as Ledger – see our crypto wallet comparison. For the tax side, our guide to crypto tax basics gives useful background.

Conclusion

MiCA is the first broad attempt to bring crypto markets the same regulatory clarity that has long applied to traditional finance. Its core promise – one licence, passporting across the whole EU/EEA – is a significant relief for companies and consumers alike, who can now trust that a licensed provider has passed a uniform and reasonably demanding assessment.

Implementation, however, has proved hard. When the transition ended on 01.07.2026, only a fraction of previously registered firms had obtained a full CASP licence, and even the biggest names briefly fell outside the EU market.

From a consumer's point of view the practical conclusion is simple: checking a MiCA licence before using any crypto service is now as essential as checking a bank's authorisation would be in traditional finance. The register is public and checking it takes only a moment – but it can be the decisive difference between a regulated and an unregulated service.