BitPay goes fully licensed in the EU

BitPay Clears the Dutch Regulator

@BitPay's European entity, BitPay B.V., has been authorized as a crypto-asset service provider (CASP) under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), with clearance granted by the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM). The approval gives the Atlanta-founded payments company, which has been operating since 2011, regulated access to all 27 EU member states through a single Dutch license.

Under MiCA's passporting framework, a CASP authorization issued in one EU member state allows the holder to provide regulated crypto services across the entire Union. For BitPay, that means one approval now unlocks a market of hundreds of millions of potential customers without the need for separate national licenses in each country.

The Netherlands Becomes a Preferred MiCA Hub

BitPay's choice of the Netherlands follows a pattern already established by several other crypto payments firms. MoonPay Europe B.V. was authorized under MiCA by the Dutch AFM on 30 December 2024, making it one of the first companies to receive a license on the very first day MiCA became enforceable. The Netherlands has since attracted a strong cluster of payments and on-ramp businesses, in part because the AFM moved quickly to stand up its licensing infrastructure and cut its national transition period short, setting a hard compliance deadline of 30 June 2025, well ahead of most other EU states.

The country's appeal for on-ramp and payments-style business models is well established. Firms including MoonPay, Bitvavo, Finst, and Fiat Republic have all chosen the Netherlands as their MiCA home base, drawn by the regulator's familiarity with crypto-native business models and a licensing process that, once completed, provides immediate passporting across the EEA.

MiCA's full EU-wide enforcement deadline arrived on 1 July 2026, leaving providers without a valid CASP authorization unable to legally serve EU customers. With the compliance window now closed, authorized firms like BitPay hold a meaningful competitive advantage over unlicensed rivals still working through applications or considering an exit from the European market altogether.

The broader race for MiCA authorization shows no sign of slowing. With more than 200 CASPs now on the ESMA register and the Netherlands firmly established as a preferred jurisdiction for payments-focused operators, the question for the industry is which major names move next.

Sources:
Dutch AFM: CASP License Requirements and Procedure
MoonPay: MiCA and the 1 July Deadline
AdamSmith: MiCA Regulation 2026 Licensing Guide