MiCA's July 1 licensing deadline.

On July 1, the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, MiCA, ends its 18-month grace period. Of the 1,200 or so firms that held national registrations, only about 210 hold a full CASP, a crypto-asset service provider license. The rest must stop serving EU clients.

A CASP license is one EU-wide permit. Approval in a single country lets a firm serve all 27 states, the way a passport clears every border in the bloc. To earn it, a platform meets bank-style rules on custody, governance, and safeguarding client funds. The older national registrations never carried those guarantees, so most do not convert on their own.

The tokens did not change, and neither did the chains. What changed is the legal wrapper around the platforms holding user funds. In Europe, access now depends on whether the company is licensed, not on the asset it lists.