Crypto Exchanges Stampede for Europe’s Shiny New MiCA License—Guess Who Just Got it?

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The sun had just nudged its way above the low Dutch sky, and with it came a letter from the Authority for Financial Markets, fat with the promise and dry as a banker’s handshake. Bitvavo, a name buzzing like a beehive in the land of digital coins, caught word they’d been handed a Markets in Crypto-Assets license—the new golden ticket in the fields of European finance. A license like that is supposed to mean legitimacy, as if a slip of paper makes a wild stallion into a plowhorse overnight.

Mark Nuvelstijn, the co-founder with a haircut you could time the harvest by, stood up on Friday (perhaps on a crate, perhaps just in his own office, who knows), and said he was all for the MiCA rules. He claimed, with the slick satisfaction of a stable door swinging on oiled hinges:

“For a level playing field in Europe, it is essential that the rules are formulated and enforced consistently across all member states.”

That sort of talk lulls regulators to sleep, but out in the crypto fields the folks know the game: rules change, the players hustle, the carrot keeps skittering further down the row. Still, the MiCA license did bring something. They say it gives Bitvavo the courage to wander Europe like a traveling salesman, suitcase open and ready to sell dreams to anyone with Wi-Fi.

The MiCA licensing started in January, when winter made everyone but lawyers groan. It promises investor protection, financial stability, and innovation—three things most folks chase but haven’t caught all at once since the tulip bubble. 😂

Jeetan Patel, Bitvavo’s chief risk officer—and you can bet that’s a hat which fits tight—says the process was “rigorous but efficient.” You know, like taxes. Every form filled, every rule checked twice, and at the end, instead of a medal, they got the right to keep doing what they were doing, only with more paperwork and fewer sleepless nights.

He says, “We highly value the constructive collaboration with the AFM throughout this process.” If they added more value, it’d be listed on the balance sheet right next to Goodwill.😏

But Bitvavo wasn’t the only one waiting at that window with hopeful eyes. Firms from all corners—Kraken (fiercer in name than in temperament), Coinbase, Bybit, even MoonPay—lined up for their taste of legitimacy. It’s a regular gold rush, if your idea of gold is regulation, and your pickaxe is regulatory paperwork sharp enough to draw blood.

This stampede for MiCA approval whipped up optimism among the money folks. Suddenly, investors’ faith sprang up like weeds after spring rain; even Konstantins Vasilenko from Paybis found himself with 70% more trading volume from EU customers in early 2025. A miracle, or just folks eager to put their coins somewhere the European Union said was aboveboard—for now at least.

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2025-06-28 10:56