A hundred days after the markets in Crypto-Assets (MICA) framework came into force, the majority of the crypto industry still racet to catch up.
On April 14, Circle’s Executive Patrick Hansen, who mentioned data from the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), reported that only 11 Stablecoin emission and 15 crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) had received authorization.
The low figures underline the constant struggle of the sector to meet Mica’s compliance requirements.
Hansen emphasized that without a MICA license Crypto companies, their services in the 30 countries in the European Economic Area (EEA) cannot passport. This limitation is to accelerate companies to speed up their license efforts.
Hansen, however, identified some important gaps, such as the fact that there are no allocations (art) publishers referred to assets.
He also noted that supervisors have received only around 25 white papers for digital assets that do not fall under EMT or art classifications. This includes large CAP tokens such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.
As a sign of increasing enforcement, the Italian financial authority, Consob, has added 15 names to the list of non-compliant entities, which is a reflection of a growing study under the new framework.
Licensed stablecoin -mittenten
Since Mica came into force, 11 Stablecoin spending from six EU countries have been approved to issue e-money tokens (EMTs). So far, supervisors have authorized 16 EMTs, 10 linked to the euro and six to the US dollar.
The list of approved entities comprises Circle (Emittent from USDC), Banking Circle, Fiat Republic, Quantoz Payments, Membrane Finance, Salvus, Societe Generale, Stablr, Stablemint and Schuman Financial.
In the meantime, Tether, the issue of the world’s largest Stablecoin USDT, remains absent in the list. The failure to meet mica standards has led to deleters of various EU-based exchanges.
However, Tether has recommended his Handron platform and investments in Quantoz payments as an answer to the regulatory challenge.
Mica-Conforme Casp
ESMA 15 has mentioned authorized providers on the CASP front.
These include important crypto platforms such as crypto.com, OKX, Bitpanda, Etoro and Crypto Finance, in addition to traditional financial institutions such as BBVA, Clearstream and Flatex.
In particular, some previously mentioned companies, such as MoonPay and Hidden Road, no longer appear on the register. This may indicate changes in their status or current regulatory assessment.
Germany is currently leading the region with six licensed CASPs, followed by Malta with five.