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In the world · Finance · 1 July 2026

MiCA: Europe's crypto-asset transition is over

The MiCA regulation has applied in the European Union since December 2024, and the transition for providers ended on July 1, 2026. What it teaches.

bairogonzalez.com team, drawing on Bairo's story · Published

MiCA, the European Union's regulation on markets in crypto-assets, is Regulation (EU) 2023/1114. It entered into force in June 2023, began applying to stablecoins on June 30, 2024 and to the entire market on December 30, 2024. The transition period for companies already operating under national laws ended, at the latest, on July 1, 2026: since then, anyone providing crypto-asset services in the European Union needs authorization under MiCA.

What happened

Before MiCA, each European country had its own rule, or none. A company could be registered in one country and operate in another without a common framework. The regulation created a single regime for the 27 countries, with rules on transparency, disclosure, authorization and supervision.

MiCA organizes the market into three blocks. Asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens, which are stablecoins in European terminology, received rules on reserves, issuance and redemption, applied since June 30, 2024. Crypto-asset service providers, such as trading platforms, custodians and brokers, came to need authorization from a national authority, valid throughout the Union. And public offerings of crypto-assets came to require an information document, the white paper, for which the publisher is liable.

ESMA, the European Securities and Markets Authority, maintains an interim register of white papers, authorized providers and entities operating without authorization, updated weekly. According to ESMA itself, the transition period allowed companies already providing services under national laws before December 30, 2024 to keep operating until July 1, 2026, or until they were granted or refused authorization. Each country could shorten this period.

The end of the transition had an immediate effect. According to CoinDesk, in a report of August 14, 2026, 323 companies were authorized by the deadline, and more than 1,700 unlicensed platforms were forced to stop. Shortly afterwards, on September 30, 2026, ESMA sent recommendations for revising the regulation, with changes to make MiCA clearer, safer and ready for emerging services.

Why it matters

MiCA created a common framework for a 27-country market, and this shows a clear choice: instead of banning or leaving things unregulated, the regulator defines who can do what, with what guarantees for the customer.

For those doing business with Europe, the effect is practical. A company authorized in one country can operate in all the others, which reduces cost and confusion. At the same time, those without authorization lose ground, because regulated institutions cannot deal with them.

Brazil followed a similar path. BCB Resolutions 519, 520 and 521, of November 2025, created virtual asset service providers with a deadline to apply for authorization by October 30, 2026. Europe and Brazil arrive at the same place by different roads: the digital asset market now answers to a regulator.

In Bairo's view

Bairo Leandro Gonzalez Martinez works in international business, with companies connected in Brazil and the United Kingdom, and so he looks at the rules of more than one country at the same time. In his reading, the end of the European transition is a warning to those building financial technology: rules are not an obstacle, they are the road by which innovation reaches people.

For Bairo, the infrastructure that connects agribusiness to the world needs to be accepted at every port where the cargo arrives. A European buyer of Brazilian food will want to pay for and record the purchase within the rules of their own continent. In Bairo's view, designing with this in mind from the start saves years of rework, and years, on his yardstick, are lifetime.

He also draws a distinction that MiCA itself draws: recording a fact on a public network is different from holding or trading someone's assets. The first can be open to all. The second requires a license.

Where this meets the ecosystem

CEASA Bank is an agribusiness financial platform that operates on the infrastructure of an authorized institution, and it provides for accounts, payments and custody in each country to go through institutions authorized there. No regulated activity in Europe is carried out without the required authorization.

The BTZ Chain is a public network that anyone can check in the explorer, proposed to record facts and prove there is a real person behind each act. BICOIN, this network's governance coin, follows the yardstick "1 BTZ = 1 minute of human life", which measures purpose: it has no promised price, is not an offer and is not an invitation to buy. How it fits under MiCA, as under the Brazilian rules, depends on a legal opinion, and no compliance is claimed before that.

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