EU Approves 53 Crypto Firms Under MiCA Legislation

The European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) legislation has reached a significant milestone by approving licenses for 53 crypto firms to operate across the bloc. This development marks a major step toward unified digital asset regulation within the European Economic Area (EEA).

Among the approved firms are 14 stablecoin issuers and 39 crypto-asset service providers (CASPs). These licenses enable the firms to "passport" their services to all 30 EEA countries without needing separate national approvals. Leading the list of licensed firms are Circle, Crypto.com, Société Générale – Forge, Stablemint, Quantoz, Membrane Finance, and StablR, among others. These firms have issued 20 fiat-backed stablecoins, including 12 euro-pegged, 7 US dollar-pegged, and 1 Czech koruna-pegged stablecoins. Notable CASPs include Coinbase, Kraken, Bitstamp, OKX, Robinhood, Trade Republic, BBVA, Clearstream, eToro, and N26. Germany and the Netherlands are the licensing leaders, with 23 of the 39 CASP approvals combined.

Notably absent from the first round of approvals are Binance and Tether, two of the sector's largest participants. Tether, the world's largest stablecoin issuer, has yet to be approved by MiCA due to insufficient audit transparency and reluctance to meet MiCA's strict governance and disclosure standards. As a result, Tether's USDT has been delisted from several EU exchanges, and the company has stated that it would focus on other markets until the EU regime becomes less "risk-averse."

Binance has also not obtained a MiCA license, primarily due to pending regulatory questions and compliance matters across Europe. The exchange has pulled applications or closed in many EU countries over the past two years and has been under investigation in several regions. MiCA's demands for robust governance, transparency, and anti-money laundering measures have been particularly challenging for such a large, complex organization.

MiCA's phased rollout means that only compliant stablecoins and compliant service providers can legally be offered or listed in the EU. This has already led to the delisting of non-compliant tokens, most prominently USDT, and market share consolidation among regulated players. For investors and institutions, the new rules offer the promise of greater transparency and consumer protection but also risk reducing diversity and innovation in the short term.

“MiCA is a game-changer for European crypto, but the bar is high. Firms must demonstrate not just technical compliance, but real governance and transparency,” notes a Brussels-based digital finance lawyer. The passporting regime under MiCA is a double-edged sword: it lowers the barriers for big, compliant players but raises the costs and complexity for smaller competitors, potentially accelerating market consolidation. The September regulatory checkpoint can anticipate more companies being added or removed as compliance checks continue.

Europe's new MiCA regime is reshaping the crypto landscape—bringing clarity and access to some, and new hurdles for even the industry's largest players. The next few months will reveal whether giants like Binance and Tether can adapt, or if they will be irrevocably changed by Europe's new rules.