MiCA-licensed crypto exchanges

In short: under MiCA, a crypto platform needs a licence from a national regulator to serve customers in the EU, and one licence can be used across the EU once the platform has notified the other countries. The table above comes from ESMA's register. Below we explain what the columns mean, how you can check a licence yourself, and what a licence does and does not do for you.

What MiCA is

MiCA is the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2023/1114, adopted on 31 May 2023. As a regulation, it applies directly in every member state, so the same rules hold across the EU instead of a patchwork of national regimes. It covers two groups: companies that issue crypto-assets, including stablecoins, and companies that provide services in crypto-assets, called crypto-asset service providers or CASPs.

The rules for stablecoin issuers have applied since 30 June 2024, and the rest of MiCA, including the rules for CASPs, since 30 December 2024. A company may only provide crypto-asset services in the EU if it is authorised as a CASP, or if it is one of a limited group of already regulated financial firms, such as banks and investment firms, that have notified their regulator.

The country lists in ESMA's register also include Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, the three countries of the European Economic Area outside the EU. That is why a platform can be listed for up to 30 countries: the 27 EU member states plus those three.

What a CASP licence covers

A MiCA authorisation always names the services the company may provide. MiCA defines ten, identified in the register by a letter:

Buying crypto with euros can fall under different codes, depending on how a platform arranges it: selling to you itself (c), matching your order with other users on its trading platform (b), or executing or passing on your order (e or g). If the platform keeps your crypto for you, it also needs custody (a). To add a service later, a provider has to ask its regulator to extend its authorisation.

One licence, many countries: passporting

A CASP may provide its services throughout the EU without a physical presence in the other countries. This is often called passporting. It works like this:

1. The provider gives its home regulator a list of the member states where it intends to provide services, which services, and from when.
2. Within 10 working days, the home regulator forwards that information to the other countries, to ESMA and to the European Banking Authority.
3. The provider may start once its regulator has confirmed the forwarding, and at the latest 15 calendar days after it submitted the information.

In ESMA's register, the result is a list of the member states where the provider intends to provide its services. The country count in our table is based on that list, including the provider's home country. A country on the list means the platform may serve customers there. It does not guarantee that every coin, payment method or feature is offered in every country, so check the platform's own terms for where you live.

Why Bybit EU shows 29 countries instead of 30

In ESMA's register file of 7 October 2026, the entry for Bybit EU GmbH lists every EU and EEA country except Malta. The other seven platforms list all 30. We show what the register says. If you live in Malta, check with Bybit EU before you open an account.

The transitional period, and why it matters now

MiCA gave companies that were already providing crypto services under national law before 30 December 2024 a transitional period to get licensed. Under Article 143 of MiCA they could carry on until 1 July 2026, or until their application was approved or refused, whichever came first. Member states could also choose a shorter period or none at all.

According to the list ESMA published, based on what the national authorities told it, the periods were:

The periods ran from 30 December 2024. Some countries attached conditions, such as a deadline for applying. ESMA notes that some periods reflected the authorities' expectations at the time and had not all been written into national law yet.

Since 1 July 2026 the transitional period has ended everywhere. ESMA has said that any company providing crypto-asset services to EU clients without a MiCA licence after that date is in breach of EU law. A company that is not authorised may not offer its services to EU clients, apart from the narrow case where a client approaches it entirely on their own initiative. Read more on our page about Binance alternatives in Europe.

How to check a licence yourself

1. Download the register. On ESMA's MiCA page, download the file of authorised crypto-asset service providers. It is a CSV file that opens in any spreadsheet program.
2. Search for the company. Use the legal name or the LEI (legal entity identifier). Each entry lists the regulator, the home member state, the date of authorisation, any withdrawal date, the services and the countries notified.
3. Make sure it is the company you would deal with. ESMA points out that MiCA protection applies only to the specific authorised company in the EU, not to other companies in the same group or to companies outside the EU, even under the same brand. The platform's terms of use name the company you contract with.
4. Check the national register too. ESMA publishes its file weekly, and it notes that information in national registers may not appear in its file straight away. The home regulator in our table is the place to look.
5. Look at the warning list. ESMA also publishes a file of non-compliant entities: companies that national regulators have flagged for providing crypto services without the required authorisation.

What a licence does and does not protect you against

What MiCA requires of a licensed platform:

• It is supervised by a national regulator and must keep meeting the conditions of its licence.
• It must act honestly, fairly and professionally in your best interests, give information that is fair, clear and not misleading, and warn you about the risks of crypto-asset transactions.
• If it holds crypto for you, it must keep it separate from its own crypto, so that its creditors have no claim on your crypto if it goes bankrupt.
• It is liable for the loss of your crypto through an incident attributable to it, up to the market value at the time of the loss.
• You can file a complaint free of charge, and it must handle complaints promptly and fairly.

What a licence does not do:

• It does not protect you against falling prices. A crypto-asset can lose part or all of its value.
• It is not a deposit guarantee. MiCA itself requires crypto-asset white papers to state that crypto-assets are not covered by deposit guarantee schemes or investor compensation schemes.
• It is not an endorsement of any coin. ESMA states that the white papers in its register have not been reviewed or approved by any authority.
• It does not cover other companies in the same group, or companies outside the EU.

How often we check

We check ESMA's register every month, and the table shows the date of our last check. If a regulator withdraws a licence, ESMA keeps the entry with the date of withdrawal; we would then take that platform out of our comparison.

ESMA's register holds far more providers than the eight we compare: the file of 7 October 2026 has 370 entries, including banks, brokers and smaller platforms. Every platform we compare has a licence, but not every licensed provider is in our comparison. How we choose and compare is explained on how we compare, and the current cost ranking is on the best crypto exchange in Europe by cost.