Regulations

Story: MiCA Wipes Out 90% of Europe’s Crypto Firms, Just 280 CASPs Survive

By Steven Anderson

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Offshore Operators Still Serving European Users. The licensing phase is done. Now comes the harder part: actually enforcing the rules.

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MiCA 2 Consultation and What Poland Gets Wrong. Even as the dust settles on MiCA's first full compliance phase, the European Commission is already…

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Europe's crypto market just got a lot smaller. The MiCA transition deadline hit on July 1, and the fallout was brutal — roughly 90% of previously registered crypto firms are gone.

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Before the cutoff, Europe had about 2,700 registered Virtual Asset Service Providers, or VASPs.

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Ryan Miller of market maker Wincent was pretty direct about why the attrition rate hit so hard.

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The licensing phase is done. Now comes the harder part: actually enforcing the rules. Licensed firms are already running into a real problem — offshore competitors who didn't…

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Harris was clear that regulators need to move against non-compliant organizations if MiCA is going to mean anything.

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Unclear yet how fast that enforcement actually moves.

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See also: Belgiums FSMA Flags 6 Unauthorized Crypto Providers After MiCA Deadline Hits

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Vyara Savova from the European Ethereum Institute sees a consolidation trend forming around larger players. That's probably not surprising.

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Poland is a case in point. Some EU member states are still struggling with authorization because national legislation has stalled. That's a real gap.

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Ripple's recent MiCA authorization, meanwhile, signals that major players aren't walking away from the European market. They're betting the framework holds.

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The consolidation Savova sees isn't just a side effect — it's probably the intended result, at least in part.

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More context: Binance CEO Flags MiCA Fragmentation Risk Threatening Europes 27-Nation Crypto Market

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But the theory only works if enforcement catches up to the rules. Right now there's a gap between what MiCA requires and what's actually being policed.

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