MiCA Regulation

What MiCA covers

The MiCA Regulation — full name Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2023/1114) — is the European Union's first comprehensive, harmonised legal framework for crypto-assets and their service providers. It replaces the previous patchwork of 27 national rulebooks with a single set of requirements that applies across the entire single market.

MiCA has been in force since 30 June 2024 for stablecoin issuers and, from 30 December 2024, in full for all other crypto-asset service providers (CASPs). It is a regulation, so it applies directly without national implementing legislation — a deliberate choice intended to avoid the regulatory fragmentation of the past.

The history is telling. The Commission's draft dates back to September 2020 and MiCA was formally adopted in mid-2023. In between, the collapse of Terra/Luna (May 2022) and FTX (November 2022) wiped out two of the market's most prominent players — events that gave the case for tough regulation considerable political momentum.

Which providers and tokens are covered?

MiCA regulates three categories of crypto-asset:

• E-money tokens (EMTs): stablecoins pegged to a single fiat currency, such as EURC or USDC
• Asset-referenced tokens (ARTs): tokens pegged to a basket of underlying assets
• Other crypto-assets: every other tradable token, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and utility tokens

It also covers CASP services: custody and administration of crypto-assets on behalf of clients, operation of trading platforms, exchanging crypto-assets for fiat or other crypto-assets, order execution, placing and investment advice on crypto-assets.

Providers need a MiCA licence, issued by the competent national supervisor — the FMA in Austria, the BaFin in Germany. A licence granted in one member state passes through the entire single market under the "EU passport" principle.

Capital and transparency requirements

EMT and ART issuers must hold reserves of at least 100% of the token volume in circulation, in liquid assets such as bank deposits or short-dated sovereign bonds. For "significant" stablecoins (thresholds: 10 million users or €5 billion in market capitalisation), requirements step up further — at that point, the EBA takes on direct supervision in parallel with the national authority.

CASPs face tiered capital requirements depending on the service, starting at €50,000 for pure advisory services and rising to €150,000 for trading platforms. Every regulated crypto-asset needs a whitepaper before being offered to the public, setting out its technical, economic and legal features and notified to the supervisor.

What this means in practice

A Vienna-based crypto broker like Bitpanda has needed an FMA MiCA licence to offer its services in Austria since the end of 2024. With that licence, the firm can also run its platform in Germany, France or Italy without applying for separate authorisations in each country.

Third-country providers — a US platform looking to onboard European customers without an EU presence, for example — are essentially barred from active solicitation under the "reverse solicitation" clause. That barrier has materially advantaged established EU operators such as Bitpanda, Bitvavo and Kraken EU.

Related terms

In MiCA's orbit, the same vocabulary keeps coming up: CASP, EU passport, stablecoin, EMT, ART, whitepaper obligation, capital requirements, reverse solicitation and custody.

Common questions

Does MiCA apply to DeFi as well? Under the current reading, fully decentralised protocols sit outside the scope — but as soon as an identifiable provider with operational control can be pinned down, the regulation applies. The exact boundary remains a work in progress for ESMA and the national supervisors.

What does MiCA mean for investors? Stronger investor protection, through mandatory whitepapers, capital requirements for providers and harmonised complaints procedures — but also less choice, because non-compliant platforms are leaving the European market.

When is a stablecoin "significant"? Once it crosses 10 million EU users or €5 billion in market capitalisation. The EBA then takes on direct supervision alongside the national authority. No euro stablecoin has reached that threshold so far.