MiCA and Crypto Exchanges: Who Works in the EU and What's Due by 30 September

In brief: since 1 July 2026, only platforms holding a CASP license under the MiCA regulation may serve clients in the EU and the EEA — there were 244 of them when the transition period ended. Kraken, Coinbase, Bitstamp, Bitpanda and Revolut have stayed; Binance withdrew its license application in Greece, and Bybit is phasing out its global platform for residents of 29 EEA countries and moving them to a separate legal entity, Bybit EU. The next round is underway right now: the European Commission is accepting feedback on the MiCA review until 30 September 2026 — its outcome will determine how the rules change for exchanges in 2027.

What ended on 1 July 2026

MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) came into force in stages, and the last milestone was the transition period for existing platforms. After 1 July, a company without CASP authorization has no right to serve clients from the European Union and the European Economic Area.

According to ForkLog, citing ESMA, 244 authorized crypto-asset service providers were operating in the EU and the EEA by the deadline — licenses were being issued in the final days by regulators in Italy, France, Malta and Spain. For comparison: by the count Meduza cited in June, fewer than 20% of the more than 1,200 companies registered on the European market had obtained a license by May 2026.

The key restriction also applies to platforms outside the EU: they cannot serve Europeans even remotely, with the exception of so-called reverse solicitation — a situation where the client initiated contact with the platform. Regulators interpret this exception narrowly: marketing, a localized interface or support in the language of an EU country already take a company outside it.

Who stayed, who left

Data current as of 14 September 2026. A specific company's status must be checked in the ESMA register: it publishes the list of authorized CASPs and the legal entities through which they operate.

What exactly Bybit is changing for EEA residents

On 29 June 2026 Bybit warned of a phased restriction of its global platform's services for residents of 29 EEA countries — from Austria and Belgium to Sweden; Malta was not on the list. The exchange said that access to assets and position management would be preserved, and that specific dates for each service would be announced in advance so that users have time to close positions and withdraw funds.

A practical detail that is easy to miss: Bybit EU is a separate legal entity with a separate account. Assets and trading history from the global platform are not transferred automatically, and the regulated European unit's set of instruments is narrower — MiCA does not cover derivatives, which are governed by other directives and require separate permits.

What to do if your platform is leaving Europe

The course of action that follows from ESMA's requirements for an "orderly exit" and from the recommendations of specialist publications:

1. Find the legal entity in the user agreement. It, not the brand, determines your regulatory status.
2. Check that legal entity in the ESMA register. If it is not there, the platform has no right to serve EEA clients.
3. Clarify the deadlines. Companies are required to notify clients in advance and give them reasonable time to withdraw assets to a licensed provider or a non-custodial wallet.
4. Close leveraged positions and derivatives first — they are usually restricted before spot.
5. Do not transfer funds via links from emails and chats. Migration announcements are a typical pretext for phishing: take the details only from your account dashboard.
6. Save an export of your trade history before access is closed: you will need it for tax reporting.

In a regulated exit, funds generally do not disappear — the risk here is operational, not credit. But it materializes for those who wait until the last day: at a platform winding down its business in a jurisdiction, support responds more slowly and withdrawal limits may be lowered.

What will be decided by 30 September

Since 20 May 2026 the European Commission has been running two consultations — a targeted one and a public one — on the evaluation and review of European crypto-asset market regulation. Both close on 30 September 2026 at 23:59 CEST. According to ForkLog, the focus is on stablecoins, asset tokenization and harmonization with international approaches.

For exchanges this means the current configuration is not final. The results of the review will determine the terms for working with yield-bearing stablecoin products, disclosure requirements and, possibly, the procedure for recognizing licenses obtained in one EU country across the entire market. A parallel storyline is unfolding in the US, where on 15 September the Senate votes on the procedure that will decide the fate of the bill dividing authority between the SEC and the CFTC — covered in CLARITY Act: the 15 September Senate vote.

Does this affect users from Russia

Directly — no: MiCA is tied to residency in the EU and the EEA, not to citizenship, and Russia is not part of that zone. Bybit's restrictions for the 29 EEA countries do not affect users registered with Russian residency.

Indirectly, there is an effect. First, platforms unify their compliance procedures: the listing, disclosure and source-of-funds rules developed for MiCA spread to the global versions of the services. Second, for those living in Europe with a Russian passport, status is determined by actual residency — and the platform's questions will follow European rules. How platforms currently break down by availability for Russian residents — in the comparison Which crypto exchanges work in Russia in September 2026.

Sources

• ForkLog: the MiCA transition period has expired in the EU
• GNcrypto: Bybit to restrict some services for EEA residents
• Cointelegraph: Bybit announces end of service for EU users on its global platform
• Meduza: what clients of crypto platforms in the EU need to check
• European Commission: consultations on the review of crypto-asset market regulation (until 30 September 2026)