Glossary · compliance and risk
What is MiCA?
MiCA is the EU Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation. It created one licensing regime for crypto businesses across the whole EU, replacing twenty-seven national approaches, and it means a company holding or moving crypto-assets for other people needs authorisation to do it.
What it actually changed
Before MiCA, a crypto business in Europe dealt with national rules that ranged from strict to non-existent. A provider could be registered somewhere permissive and serve customers everywhere, and a merchant had no practical way to tell a supervised firm from an unsupervised one.
MiCA replaced that with a single authorisation, the crypto-asset service provider or CASP licence, which passports across the EU. It brings capital requirements, governance requirements, custody rules, complaint handling and supervision by a national regulator.
It also pulled token issuers into the regime, which had not previously been true anywhere in Europe. That is the reason a compliance conversation about which stablecoin you accept now has a regulatory answer rather than only a commercial one.
For a business choosing a provider, the useful consequence is simple. Authorisation is a matter of public record, so you can ask for the number and look it up. CoinGate is operated by UAB Decentralized and holds CASP authorisation LB002323 and payment institution licence LB002324, both supervised by the Bank of Lithuania.
The less useful consequence is that every provider now describes itself as MiCA-compliant, including those still in an application or transition period. The number is what separates the claims.
Compare
Before MiCA and after
The change that matters to a business buying payment services.
| Before | After | |
|---|---|---|
| Licensing | National, ranging from strict to absent | One EU authorisation that passports |
| Telling firms apart | Very hard | Ask for the number, check the register |
| Stablecoin issuers | Largely outside any regime | In scope |
| Supervision | Patchy | A named national regulator per firm |
| What a merchant can verify | Almost nothing | The authorisation, the entity and the supervisor |
The last row is the practical value of the regulation to somebody buying, as distinct from somebody selling.
What to do with this when choosing a provider
Three questions, and the first one takes a minute.
Ask for the authorisation number
Not the badge, the number. Then find it in the national register. A firm that cannot supply one is answering the question.
Frequently asked questions
Does MiCA apply to me as a merchant?
Accepting crypto as payment for your own goods is not itself a regulated crypto service, so MiCA obligations generally fall on your provider rather than on you. Your own position depends on what you do, and this is not legal advice.
What is a CASP?
A crypto-asset service provider: the authorised status a firm needs to hold or move crypto-assets for other people in the EU. More on CASP
Is CoinGate MiCA authorised?
Yes. CASP authorisation LB002323 and payment institution licence LB002324, held by UAB Decentralized and supervised by the Bank of Lithuania. Both are public.
Does MiCA cover stablecoins?
Yes, it brought issuers of e-money tokens and asset-referenced tokens into scope. That is why a euro stablecoin from an authorised issuer is a different proposition from an offshore one.