MiCA was sold as Europe’s answer to crypto: one rulebook, one licence, one market of 450 million people, and a chance to grow European champions. Since the transition period ended on 1 July 2026, we can see who is actually walking through the gate.
Ilona Maklakova of Legal Nodes put it in one image: MiCA as a Trojan horse. I think she is right, and the numbers show why. Talk to us about your MiCA strategy.
Who gets the licences
By 30 September 2026, about 360 crypto-asset service providers held a MiCA authorisation. Three things stand out.
- The big names are not European. Coinbase is licensed in Luxembourg, Kraken in Ireland, OKX, Crypto.com and Gate in Malta, Bybit and KuCoin in Austria. Bitstamp, licensed in Luxembourg, now belongs to the American group Robinhood. Each of them needed only one licence in one country to reach all 27.
- Banks are the other winners. Around 40% of the authorised firms are traditional financial institutions: banks, brokers and asset managers adding crypto to an existing licence.
- Licences cluster where supervisors are fast. Germany leads by far, followed by France and the Netherlands. A founder in a smaller country often ends up applying elsewhere anyway.
The European crypto natives that made it, such as Bitpanda or Bitvavo, are the exception that proves the rule. They were already large before MiCA arrived.
Why MiCA works this way
The passport is the Trojan horse. It was designed so that a European start-up licensed in Vilnius could sell in Paris. In practice, it lets a global exchange with a billion-dollar balance sheet open one subsidiary, staff it properly, and serve the whole Union the next morning.
MiCA rewards exactly what the global groups already have: capital, compliance teams, legal budgets and the patience to sit through a long authorisation. A European start-up pays the same fixed cost of compliance as Coinbase, with a fraction of the revenue to spread it over. The rulebook is the same for everyone; the weight of it is not.
The result is a market that is safer for consumers, which is a real achievement, but not one that produces European champions. Regulation built the gate. Others had the army to walk through it.
One rulebook, 27 referees
There is a second problem, and founders feel it every day. MiCA is a single regulation, but it is applied by 27 national supervisors, each with its own procedures, fees, documentation, reading of the compliance rules, national anti-money-laundering law and marketing restrictions. Even the transition periods differed: from six months in some countries to the full eighteen in others.
ESMA itself has noticed. In its July 2025 peer review of the Maltese regulator, it found that “some material issues were not fully resolved” when a CASP licence was granted, and called on all supervisors to act as gatekeepers of the single market.
The passport is uniform on paper. The cost, speed and difficulty of getting it are not. Groups with the resources to compare supervisors choose the most efficient one; a small founder applies at home and absorbs the complexity. Once again, the rule is the same for everyone, and the weight of it is not.
What this means for a European founder
If you are building a crypto business in Europe today, there are four honest options.
1. Apply for MiCA yourself
Right if you want EU retail clients at scale and can fund a year or more of preparation, capital, a local board and a real compliance team. Choose the country for the speed and attitude of its supervisor, not for its tax rate.
2. Buy or partner instead of applying
An existing CASP, or a licensed partner who carries your clients under its authorisation, can save the year you would spend applying. See our current MiCA CASP licence opportunity and our dual MiFID II and MiCA licence, and what you can still do without a licence in MiCA after 1 July 2026.
3. Build in Switzerland
Switzerland is not in the EU and gives no passport. But it gives you something MiCA does not: a fast, credible start through SRO affiliation, a regulator with a long crypto record, and a clear path to the new Swiss crypto institution licence. For a business that serves clients worldwide, rather than EU retail, it is often the better base. See our Swiss Crypto Licence 2026 guide, our Swiss SRO Licence guide and Swiss SRO VASP: the alternative to MiCA.
4. Stay offshore and outside the EU market
Possible, but only if you genuinely do not market to EU clients. MiCA leaves very little room for “reverse solicitation”, and supervisors read it narrowly. An offshore licence with EU marketing is no longer a strategy; it is a risk.
Our view
MiCA is good regulation and bad industrial policy. It protects European consumers, and it hands the European market to whoever could afford to arrive first. For a founder, the question is no longer “MiCA or not?”, but “which gate, and with whose army?”. Sometimes the answer is MiCA. Often it is Switzerland first, or a licensed partner, and MiCA later.
We help founders choose between these routes, and execute them: MiCA applications, CASP acquisitions, Swiss SRO and crypto structures. Write to insight@fintechlex.com.
This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice.
