The most important deadline the European cryptocurrency industry has ever faced is rapidly approaching.
The transitional period under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) ends permanently at the beginning of July, and businesses who have not obtained authorization are required to cease providing services to European clients or cease operations entirely.
The EU’s first comprehensive law for the cryptocurrency sector, MiCA, places exchanges, brokers, and digital wallet providers under the same formal regulation that has long been in place for banks and other financial institutions.
A single rulebook covering all 27 member states takes the place of a disjointed collection of national regulations. A business licensed in one EU nation is granted a “passport” to operate throughout the bloc, but in exchange, it must adhere to requirements regarding the amount of capital it holds, how it is managed, how it protects client funds, and how it avoids money laundering.
According to Yamal Kalaf, co-founder of MiCAR Whitepapers Europe, which counsels cryptocurrency companies on MiCA authorization, “what emerges is a genuine unified market replacing the old patchwork of 27 national regimes,” he told Euronews.
Existing operators have been permitted to continue operating under older national registrations after the basic rules went into force at the end of 2024, although this concession was only temporary.
Crypto firms need European licences but many are behind
The scale of the looming shake-out is striking.
According to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), which confirmed in April that there would be no extension, only around 210 firms had obtained full authorisation by May, out of more than 1,200 that previously held national crypto registrations across the EU.
That points to a conversion rate of well under a fifth, leaving the vast majority of the old market without a licence as the cut-off arrives in a few days.
Speaking to Euronews, Roshan Dharia, CEO of distressed-investment firm Echo Base, explained that “the low conversion rate suggests that a meaningful portion of the market has concluded that obtaining and maintaining a MiCA licence is not economically viable within its current operating model.”
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