Europe’s Crypto Rulebook Faces Its Real Test This Month

By Isadora Arredondo, VP Global Policy, Hedera

Two important deadlines for digital asset firms in Europe land days apart this month. Both relate to MiCA, the EU’s flagship crypto rulebook. On 30 September, the European Commission will finish gathering feedback on how those rules work. Two days before Europe’s banking regulator will wrap up its own consultation on how it calculates fines for issuers of significant tokens under its direct supervision. Both deserve more attention than the MiCA narrative currently making headlines, the sharp drop in the number of firms authorised to operate across Europe.

Back in June, more than three thousand digital asset companies were still allowed to serve customers across the EU. By 31 July, only 321 MiCA-authorised crypto-asset service providers still had that right. That shift reflects the end of MiCA’s transitional period. This window, now closed, allowed companies to keep operating under old national permissions while applying for a licence under new EU-wide rules. Some might say that this looks like companies fleeing Europe. I see it differently. Getting a licence isn’t a contest won by keeping the most companies in the game, it’s a check on which companies can be trusted with people’s money. Fewer companies doesn’t mean a weaker market. What matters is whether the ones still standing are run properly.