After July 1, any company offering crypto-asset services to EU clients without a licence must stop at once. The European Securities and Markets Authority said on April 17, 2026 that there will be no grace period, no extension, and no exception once the deadline passes.
The licensing gap is large. Hogan Lovells counted only 194 licensed crypto firms across the EU as of May 2026, including banks, while more than 3,000 crypto companies had been operating in 2024. Based on the source material, about 75% of those earlier firms are expected to lose the right to keep operating after the transition period ends.
Licence conversion has fallen far short of earlier registrations
MiCA, the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, was passed in June 2023. The industry was given 18 months to secure authorisation, with the runway ending on July 1, 2026. Before MiCA, more than 1,200 VASP entities held national registrations across the bloc. By May 2026, roughly 210 CASPs had been authorised across 23 EU member states, a conversion rate below 18%.
The split across the region is sharp. Only 14 platforms hold trading authorisation across Europe, and 10 member states have issued no licences at all. Germany leads with 53 authorised entities. In France, as of January 2026, only 30% of roughly 90 unlicensed firms had applied for authorisation, while another 40% did not plan to apply. Estonia shows the scale of the drop most clearly: the country once had 641 licensed virtual asset service providers at its peak, but now contributes very little to the authorised CASP register.
Unlicensed platforms have limited options after the cutoff
The source lists five paths for firms that remain outside the register: obtain a full CASP licence before the deadline, leave Europe entirely, carry out an orderly wind-down with client notice, transfer EU client accounts to a licensed institution, or face enforcement. That enforcement can include website blocks, public warning lists, and regulatory fines. The rule is blunt.
This has direct consequences for exchange access. According to the material, platforms that have secured full CASP authorisation include Kraken, Coinbase, Bitstamp, Bitpanda, OKX, and Crypto.com. Exchanges outside the licensed register must halt new deposits after July 1, direct users to withdraw assets, and either move client funds to a licensed institution or begin a managed shutdown.
USDT has already been pushed out of regulated EU spot markets
MiCA is also reshaping which stablecoins remain available on regulated exchanges in Europe. The article says USDT has been removed from major European regulated spot markets, while USDC and EURC are the only fully authorised top-ten stablecoins under MiCA.
The removals started well before the deadline. Crypto.com halted USDT for users in January 2025. Binance delisted USDT and eight other non-compliant stablecoins from EEA spot markets in March 2025. Kraken stopped EEA spot trading for USDT in the same month. Tether chief executive Paolo Ardoino said MiCA's requirement to keep 60% of e-money token reserves in European bank deposits does not fit Tether's reserve model, and Tether did not apply for EMT authorisation.
What EU users need to verify now
Two checks stand out in the source material. First, verify whether an exchange appears on ESMA's public CASP register. If a platform is missing from that list, users should expect service access or account functionality to change after July 1. Second, review any USDT balance held on a licensed platform. The article says EU clients holding USDT there need to move into a compliant asset or a self-hosted wallet before July 1, 2026.
Withdrawal notices from unlicensed platforms also carry weight. Under the source material, those firms must notify EU clients and give them time to withdraw, while some national regulators may block access to non-compliant websites. That could prevent users from logging in to manage funds.
The impact is not limited to exchanges based inside the EU. The article notes that MiCA's reverse-solicitation exemption only applies where the client acts on their own exclusive initiative, and ESMA reads solicitation broadly. Ads, websites, apps, social media, retargeting, affiliate campaigns, influencers, SEO, and sponsorships can all count. A non-EU exchange marketing to EU users is treated as serving EU users.