---
title: "MiCA"
url: "https://mahouse.world/glossary/mica"
type: "glossary term"
author: "Ihor Vlasov"
reviewed: "2026-09-30"
published: "2026-09-25"
---

# MiCA

MiCA — the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 — is the EU's single rulebook for crypto-assets not already covered by financial-services law. It licenses crypto-asset service providers with a passport across the EU, sets authorisation, reserve and redemption rules for stablecoin issuers, and requires white papers and market-abuse controls for other tokens.

**Also known as:** Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, MiCAR, Regulation (EU) 2023/1114, EU crypto-asset regulation

## Key facts

- **Binding:** a directly applicable EU regulation of 31 May 2023; the stablecoin titles applied from 30 June 2024 and the rest from 30 December 2024; transitional relief for firms already operating under national law ended no later than 1 July 2026
- **Token categories:** e-money tokens, which reference one official currency; asset-referenced tokens, which reference other assets or a basket; and other crypto-assets; financial instruments and unique non-fungible tokens are outside its scope
- **E-money token issuers:** must be authorised credit or e-money institutions, issue and redeem at par at any time, pay no interest, and keep at least 30% of the funds received in separate accounts at credit institutions, the rest in secure, highly liquid assets in the same currency
- **Usage cap:** where a token referencing a non-EU currency is used as a means of exchange above an average of 1 million transactions and €200m a day within a single currency area, the issuer must stop issuing it and submit a plan to bring use back below the threshold
- **Service providers:** authorisation by a national authority, a registered office and effective management in the EU, and the right to serve other member states by notification
- **Change of control:** acquiring a holding of 10% or more in a crypto-asset service provider requires prior notification; the authority has 60 working days to assess it

## How MiCA works in practice

For a crypto business MiCA replaced national registration regimes with one licence. A crypto-asset service provider authorised in one member state — for custody, exchange, brokerage or transfer services — can serve the rest of the EU by notification, which turned the choice of home regulator into strategy and made buying an already-authorised firm an alternative to applying. With the transitional period over, an unauthorised firm can no longer provide crypto-asset services in the EU.

For stablecoins the effect was sharper. A token referencing a single currency is an e-money token and can be offered to the EU public only by a bank or an e-money institution; holders can redeem at par at any time; neither the issuer nor the service providers distributing it may pay interest on it. Tokens referencing the dollar are subject to the usage cap, which limits how far they can become an everyday means of payment inside the euro area.

For an acquirer, a MiCA-authorised provider is a regulated firm like any other. The change of control needs a notification before closing and an assessment that can be suspended while the authority asks for more information; diligence covers the white papers and marketing it has published, custody segregation, market-abuse surveillance, its anti-money-laundering files and its DORA compliance, since crypto-asset service providers are also within DORA's scope. A national registration is not a licence, and a price that assumes one is wrong.

## Example

A crypto brokerage registered in one member state serves 180,000 EU clients and earns €24m a year. It applies for MiCA authorisation in 2025; the process takes 11 months and €1.4m in legal, compliance and systems costs, including a new client-asset segregation model and a white paper for its loyalty token. In spring 2026 a smaller rival without authorisation offers itself for sale; the brokerage buys only its 40,000-client book for €6m, 1.5 times the rival's €4m of revenue, and migrates the clients under its own licence. A US exchange then agrees to buy the brokerage for €95m, about four times revenue, conditional on the home authority not opposing the change of control. The 60-working-day assessment is suspended for 20 days while the authority asks about the buyer's group structure, and the deal closes four months after signing.

## Common mistakes

- Treating MiCA as covering all crypto: tokenised securities stay under financial-instruments law, and NFTs are outside it.
- Assuming a stablecoin compliant elsewhere can be offered in the EU without an authorised EU issuer.
- Offering interest or yield on e-money tokens, which MiCA forbids both issuers and service providers to grant.
- Signing an acquisition timetable that leaves no room for the change-of-control assessment.
- Reading a pre-MiCA national registration as a MiCA licence.

## Related terms

- [Stablecoin](https://mahouse.world/glossary/stablecoin.md)
- [E-Money](https://mahouse.world/glossary/e-money.md)
- [GENIUS Act](https://mahouse.world/glossary/genius-act.md)
- [Blockchain](https://mahouse.world/glossary/blockchain.md)
- [AML](https://mahouse.world/glossary/aml.md)
- [DeFi](https://mahouse.world/glossary/defi.md)

— Ihor Vlasov, M&A FinTech Expert. Last reviewed 2026-09-30. https://mahouse.world/authors/ihor-vlasov