MiCA-Licensed Crypto Exchanges: The Full List (July 2026) + Capital Requirements

Last updated: July 17, 2026 · ~6 min read

Quick answer

As of July 9, 2026, 280 firms hold a full CASP authorization under MiCA (official ESMA register). Major licensed exchanges include Bybit (Austria), Kraken (Ireland), Coinbase (Luxembourg), OKX (Malta), Crypto.com (Malta), Bitpanda (Austria) and Bitstamp (Luxembourg). Binance, MEXC, Bitget and HTX do not appear in the register as of that date. A CASP license requires €50,000–€150,000 in minimum capital depending on the services offered — and it "passports" across all 30 EU/EEA markets. The transitional "grandfathering" window closed on July 1, 2026, so an unlicensed venue can no longer legally onboard EU clients under old national rules. Below: the full table of licensed names, the country-by-country breakdown, what a license actually costs in capital, and how this list is maintained.

🎁 Trade on a MiCA-licensed exchange — Bybit, up to $30,000 in welcome rewards (my link)

⚠️ Disclosure: independent guide — nobody paid for placement on this list. It links to Bybit, the exchange I personally trade on (MiCA-licensed via Austria's FMA); referral link, your fees stay the same. Every claim below is checkable in the official register.

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The register at a glance

Major exchanges that ARE MiCA-licensed

Note the pattern: it's always a dedicated EU entity ("Bybit EU GmbH", "OKX Europe Ltd") — the global brand licenses a European subsidiary, and that subsidiary is what legally serves you.

The big names that are NOT in the register

As of July 9, 2026, these exchanges do not appear in the ESMA register: Binance, MEXC, Bitget, HTX, Bitfinex. That doesn't automatically mean "scam" — an entity may be mid-application or operate under a name you don't recognize — but the practical consequence is identical either way: MiCA's client protections do not cover assets held with an unauthorized provider (ESMA). If you're in the EU and your exchange is on this second list, read the 30-second register check and act while withdrawals are open.

Where CASPs get licensed

Germany leads with 57 authorizations (BaFin), followed by France (31, AMF), the Netherlands (28, AFM), Malta (22, MFSA) and Cyprus (20, CySEC). Austria — home of Bybit EU and KuCoin EU — has 10. The country matters less than you'd think: one authorization passports across all 30 EU/EEA markets, which is why an Austrian license legally serves a user in Spain or Poland.

Counts verified against the ESMA register on July 9, 2026; the register grows weekly.

One license, 30 markets: how passporting works

MiCA replaces 30 national rulebooks with one. A CASP gets authorized once, by the regulator of the country where its EU entity sits (the "home" regulator). To serve other EU/EEA markets, it doesn't apply again — it files a passporting notification with its home regulator listing the countries it wants to serve, the home regulator forwards it to the host regulators and ESMA, and after a short waiting period the CASP may operate there. No second license, no extra capital per country.

What that means for you in practice:

• Your legal counterparty is the EU entity, wherever you live in the EU/EEA — e.g. an Austrian-licensed Bybit EU GmbH legally serves users in Spain or Poland.
• The home regulator supervises — complaints about an Austrian-licensed CASP go through the FMA framework even if you're in another member state.
• EEA counts too — the passport covers the EU-27 plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway (30 markets).

MiCA capital requirements: what a license actually costs

This is the part most articles skip. Under Article 67 and Annex IV of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114, a CASP must permanently hold minimum own funds by service class:

Two extra rules: if a quarter of last year's fixed overheads is higher than the class minimum, the CASP must hold that larger amount instead; and the requirement can be met with own funds, an EU-wide insurance policy, or a combination. In practice, total compliance cost (staff, audits, governance) runs far above the capital floor — which is exactly why the register holds 280 names and not 2,800.

The EU isn't the only one: Japan took the opposite route

MiCA builds a bespoke regime — a licence class (CASP) written specifically for crypto. Japan went the other way. On July 15, 2026 it enacted a law moving cryptoassets out of the Payment Services Act and into the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act — the same act that governs stocks and bonds. No new category: crypto moves into the existing one, and inherits its machinery — disclosure obligations, insider-trading rules, and separate taxation at roughly 20% instead of a progressive scale topping out near 55% (expected January 1, 2028; the reform itself lands no earlier than 2027).

Two regulators, one direction: crypto stops being a payments curiosity and becomes regulated finance. Full breakdown with the primary sources: Japan made crypto a financial instrument.

Methodology: how this list is maintained

• Single source of truth: the public ESMA register of authorized CASPs — the only official EU-wide list. casptracker.eu is used as a convenient searchable mirror; any conflict resolves in ESMA's favor.
• Entity matching is manual. Global brands license EU subsidiaries under different names ("Payward Europe" = Kraken, "Foris DAX MT" = Crypto.com), so each name in the tables above was matched by hand — if you search the register for a brand name and find nothing, try the legal entity.
• Every count is date-stamped. Figures on this page were verified on July 9, 2026. The register adds entries roughly weekly, so absolute counts age fast; the licensed/not-licensed status of major exchanges changes much more rarely.
• Update cadence: this page is re-verified monthly, and out of cycle when a top-20 exchange enters (or leaves) the register. The Last updated stamp at the top reflects the latest pass.
• Spotted an error? Contacts are in the footer — corrections ship within a day.

How to use this list

1. Find your exchange in the table above or search all 280 entries at casptracker.eu.
2. Not there? Check the official register walk-through — and don't keep serious money on an unauthorized venue.
3. Choosing a new exchange? Filter by license first, features second. My own pick is Bybit — licensed via Austria's FMA in May 2025.

Sources: MiCA register via casptracker.eu · ESMA — MiCA · Regulation (EU) 2023/1114, Art. 67 & Annex IV · FMA Austria — Bybit EU authorization