Useful Articles / European Union
MiCA, one month on: what actually changed for European traders
The Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation finished phasing in on 1 July 2026. It is the largest change to European crypto since exchanges started accepting euros, and almost everything written about it is aimed at the firms rather than the people using them. Here is the version for traders.
First, the thing almost every page gets wrong
You are not breaking the law by using an unlicensed exchange
MiCA places its obligations on service providers, not on the people who use them. Enforcement, suspension and fines are directed at the firm and its directors — penalties can reach 5% of annual turnover or €10 million. There is no MiCA penalty aimed at a retail user for holding an account somewhere unauthorised. Pages that tell you otherwise, usually just above a referral link, are selling something.
What you lose is protection, not liberty. That is a real loss and a good enough argument on its own: segregated client assets, a counterparty that is liable if funds go missing, a regulator you can escalate to, and a complaints process that exists.
What the regulation actually requires of a venue
Authorisation as a crypto-asset service provider, granted by a national regulator and passportable across the EEA. The licence names specific services — custody, exchange, transfer, placing — and a firm may only do what it applied for. This is why "is it licensed?" is a less useful question than "licensed for what?".
The part that catches traders out
A MiCA licence does not permit derivatives. Futures, perpetuals and options sit under MiFID II — a separate authorisation, applied for separately, granted separately.
This is not a temporary gap while the paperwork catches up. They are two different rulebooks covering two different things, and a firm can easily hold one without the other. It explains an otherwise baffling pattern: fully authorised European exchanges that offer you spot and margin but no perpetual contracts, including some whose global platforms are known primarily for derivatives.
What happened to the market
| Before MiCA | August 2026 |
|---|---|
| Roughly 3,000 providers operating across Europe under national regimes | 324 firms on the ESMA register of authorised CASPs |
| Binance serving EU retail clients | Application withdrawn June 2026; EU retail service ended 1 July |
| USDT quoted on essentially every venue | Not listable on a compliant EU platform — Tether did not seek authorisation |
How to check any platform in two minutes
- Open the ESMA register of authorised CASPs. It is the only authoritative source. Every other list, including the one on this site, is a copy that can go stale.
- Search the legal entity, not the brand. Exchanges run EU business through subsidiaries, and the name you know may not be the one holding the licence. Bybit's European entity is Bybit EU GmbH, authorised in Austria; OKX's is OKX Europe Limited, authorised in Malta.
- Read the authorised services on the entry. A licence covers exactly what was applied for.
- For derivatives, check the national MiFID II register separately. A MiCA entry tells you nothing about it.
- If a platform advertises itself as "EU regulated" and appears nowhere under any entity, treat that as your answer.
Where to start if you need a new venue
Two examples you can check for yourself on the register: Bybit EU, authorised in Austria for spot and margin, and OKX Europe, authorised in Malta and holding MiFID II permissions alongside MiCA — which is what lets it offer derivatives. Both links are referral links and pay this site a commission; neither changes what the register says.
Is any of this good for you?
On balance, yes — with a cost. You gained a liable counterparty, segregated assets and somewhere to complain. You lost access to several venues, to USDT pairs, and in most cases to leveraged products you may have been using. Whether that trade favours you depends entirely on what you were doing with the account.