MiCA in Practice: Barriers, Legal Certainty and Opportunities

MiCA in practice: barriers, legal certainty and opportunities

Overview

A year after it came into force, is MiCA a barrier or the legal certainty the sector needed? In this MERGE Madrid panel, three complementary perspectives —Criptán, CECABANK and Crypto.com— discuss the real experience of Europe's crypto-asset regulation: the single market, the challenges of the authorization dossier and the path of collaboration it opens.

What you'll learn

• European single market: how MiCA replaces scattered national regimes with the same rules and a passport for the whole EU
• Barrier or legal certainty: why regulation brings trust and adoption but is also a barrier to entry
• Traditional vs crypto-native: the contrast between banking's regulatory muscle and a startup's agility
• The authorization dossier: speaking the regulator's language, scoping services and submitting complete documentation
• Beyond MiCA: Travel Rule, DORA, MiCA 2 and pending loose ends such as staking
• Convergence and collaboration: the Brussels effect, global regulatory convergence and partnerships between firms

Session summary

From patches to a single market: the panel recalls that before MiCA there were national registrations only for anti-money-laundering purposes, with different criteria in each country; MiCA brings the same rules and a passport to provide services across the European Union with legal certainty.

A traditional institution's view: CECABANK, as a heavily regulated entity and major custodian, describes MiCA as a necessary evil that brings robustness; its challenge is not so much talking to the supervisor (its day-to-day) as coordinating a cross-cutting project across many areas, slower than in a startup.

A crypto-native firm's view: Criptán, smaller and more agile, explains it chose the regulatory path from the start; its biggest challenge is the difference in speed with the regulator and balancing a long process with business growth.

A global view: Crypto.com stresses the importance of international regulatory convergence in a market that is global by nature, and anticipates a Brussels effect whereby European rules inspire regulation in other countries; it also warns that an overly demanding standard can become a barrier to innovation.

A financial institution in every respect: obtaining the dossier means taking on continuous obligations such as Travel Rule, DORA and anti-money-laundering at the level of a financial institution, plus the wave of regulation still to come (MiCA 2, staking and other loose ends).

Collaborating to grow: the panel agrees that overcoming these challenges opens collaboration opportunities; for example, a traditional institution can act as a sub-custodian (with providers such as Fireblocks for custody and Bit2Me for execution), contributing parts of the dossier to other firms.

Advice for tackling a MiCA dossier: speak the regulator's language, clearly scope the services for which authorization is requested, submit documentation as complete as possible, get the whole organization (business, legal, compliance, operations and governance bodies) rowing in the same direction, and prepare for a demanding process, with focus and backup plans.

Watch the full panel

Watch the full panel recording on MERGE's YouTube channel, with Criptán, CECABANK and Crypto.com on the real experience of MiCA.

FAQs

What is MiCA?
It is the European Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, which sets the same rules across the European Union and a passport to provide crypto-asset services in member states.

Is MiCA a barrier or an advantage?
According to the panel, it provides legal certainty, trust and a single market, which favors adoption; at the same time it is a barrier to entry, especially demanding for small and innovative companies.

What obligations does it involve beyond MiCA?
Becoming a regulated provider entails continuous obligations such as Travel Rule, DORA (operational resilience) and anti-money-laundering at the level of a financial institution, with constantly evolving rules.

What advice is given for tackling the authorization dossier?
Speak the regulator's language, clearly scope the services, submit complete documentation, align the whole organization and lean on collaboration between firms.