Europe’s unlicensed crypto firms face ‘wipeout’ as MiCA deadline hits
Key takeaways
- Europe was thought to have had more than 3,000 registered virtual asset service providers (VASPs), the pre-MiCA categorization, as of 2024.
- If you have a MiCA license and you want to offer and process stablecoins, you also need to have a PI [Payment Institution] or EMI [Electronic Money Institution] license.”
- Several firms have even asked if OXK, which obtained a MiCA license from Malta over a year ago, would acquire them, simply because they can’t afford the cost of compliance, he said.
Companies licensed by national regulators before the arrival of MiCA, a unifying regulatory framework for Europe’s crypto firms that allows them to offer services across the 27-country trading bloc, may operate only until a transitional period ends on July 1. After that, their permission expires.
Europe was thought to have had more than 3,000 registered virtual asset service providers (VASPs), the pre-MiCA categorization, as of 2024. Poland alone accounted for well over 1,400 registrations. As of this month, there are just 244 MiCA-authorized crypto-asset service providers (CASPs).
“I estimate that 80% of the crypto players won't survive after MiCA,” Erald Ghoos, CEO of OKX Europe, said in an interview. “It's not only because of MiCA itself, it's because of the whole width and heaviness of the European regulatory burden. If you have a MiCA license and you want to offer and process stablecoins, you also need to have a PI [Payment Institution] or EMI [Electronic Money Institution] license.”