In short
- Spain’s securities regulator said there will be no extension of the EU’s July 1 MiCA licensing deadline for crypto companies.
- Binance, which remains unlicensed after withdrawing its application in Greece, may have to temporarily suspend EU operations.
- Regulators work with unlicensed companies to ensure that customer assets can be transferred if necessary.
Spain’s top securities regulator said Friday that the country will not extend the fast-approaching deadline for crypto companies to register under new regulations – even as Binance struggles to do so.
Under the new implementation of the European Union Mica crypto framework, companies have until July 1 to register with a member state and remain operational. If they do not register next week, they will be required to cease their activities. European customers will no longer be able to complete transactions with unauthorized crypto service providers after next week.
Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, had attempted to register with Greece under MiCA. But after a report that the country was unlikely to grant approval, Binance said this week that it would has withdrawn his application from Greece. It is now trying to register in another EU member state, but will likely be forced to scale back operations in Europe, at least temporarily, when the clock runs out next Wednesday.
Carlos San Basilio, the president of Spain’s National Securities Market Commission, said Friday that there will be “no exceptions or extensions” to the July 1 deadline, according to a report by Reuters.
San Basilio expressed concern about major crypto platforms such as Binance, which will be shut down within days due to a lack of MiCA compliance.
“What we are concerned about… is how this period – the end of the transition period – will unfold and how the adaptation to the new environment will take place,” he said.
The regulator added that he and others are in contact with major crypto firms that have not yet obtained licenses, to ensure they have plans to transfer customer assets to other providers and safeguard investors’ rights.
Once a crypto company registers in an EU country, it can ‘passport’ its license to other jurisdictions. EU member states have a wide range of approaches to financial regulation, from more hands-off jurisdictions such as Cyprus and Malta to notoriously strict regimes such as France and Germany.
While each EU country may process applications in its own way, they will all enforce the same broader set of crypto-related rules.
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