Catenaa, Saturday, February 01, 2025 – Several prominent cryptocurrency exchanges have secured licenses under the new Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, marking a significant development in Europe’s crypto industry.
Among the first to receive the licenses are Crypto Finance, Bitpanda, OKX, and Crypto.com, which were granted approval by various financial authorities, including Germany’s BaFin and Malta’s MFSA.
The MiCA licenses, which allow these exchanges to operate across all 30 countries in the European Economic Area (EEA), bring substantial advantages to the crypto market.
A key feature of MiCA is its “passporting” mechanism, which simplifies the regulatory process by allowing a single license to be valid across multiple countries.
This streamlining of regulations aims to integrate and simplify crypto operations across Europe.
Bitpanda, an Austrian exchange with over 6 million users, highlighted the potential for growth, aiming to expand its services to 450 million people across the EEA.
Similarly, OKX and Crypto.com also plan to leverage MiCA’s passporting mechanism to broaden their offerings, including over-the-counter trading, spot trading, and bot services, across the region.
This regulatory development marks a major milestone for the European crypto market, which has been shaped by years of debate and deliberation over regulations. The MiCA framework, now live since the end of 2024, is expected to provide greater stability and foster growth within the sector, enabling more comprehensive crypto services across Europe.
