On July 1, 2026, the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation transition period officially ended. From this date, all crypto asset service providers (CASPs) that have not obtained formal authorization from an EU member state must cease operations within the bloc. Industry estimates suggest that approximately 75% of the original crypto trading platforms operating in Europe have been forced to exit due to failure to secure licenses, marking the largest-ever compliance-driven wave of exchange closures in European history.
Among major players, Binance withdrew its license application and temporarily exited the European market. In contrast, Coinbase, Kraken, and other platforms that had already secured licenses in one EU member state utilized MiCA's passporting mechanism to extend their services across the entire EU. Meanwhile, the stablecoin landscape has shifted significantly: USDT (Tether) was delisted by mainstream exchanges, while USDC (Circle) has become the preferred stablecoin for institutions and exchanges due to its compliance status under MiCA.
MiCA's implementation makes the EU the first major economy to comprehensively regulate crypto assets, with far-reaching implications for compliance costs, market competition, and the stablecoin ecosystem. Source: MarsBit report.