Leading the MiCA Charge

Stauber’s appointment comes as Bitget aims to comply with the Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA) in the European Union. The company has applied for a MiCA license in Austria, anticipating regulatory approval by the second quarter of 2026. Until then, Bitget EU will not offer services in the European Economic Area (EEA).

Ensuring Compliance and Integrity

Bitget EU is implementing rigorous compliance measures, including IP detection and enhanced Know Your Customer (KYC) protocols, to prevent unlicensed entities from accessing the platform. Stauber emphasizes that only assets meeting MiCA’s whitepaper, liquidity, and disclosure standards will be listed.

Market Integrity and Surveillance

Operating as a broker, Bitget EU will adhere to best-execution principles, sourcing liquidity from diverse providers. The platform will also deploy advanced tools to detect and prevent market abuse, aligning with European Securities and Markets Authority standards.

The Vienna hub was selected for its strategic location and robust regulatory environment, making it an ideal governance and compliance center for EEA operations.

Transitioning Existing Users

Once authorized, existing EEA users on Bitget’s global platform will be invited to transition to Bitget EU, offering them a compliant and secure trading experience.

This strategic expansion is crucial for Bitget’s growth in Europe, positioning it as a leader in regulatory compliance within the crypto space.

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Simultaneously, OKX, another crypto exchange, revealed that it too has introduced its fully regulated centralized crypto exchange in France utilizing MiCA passporting. Erald Ghoos, CEO of OKX Europe, underscored the significance of France as a key market and their foray into it as “a crucial step in our European growth.”

Bybit.eu will provide a multi-language platform supporting English, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish, with the intention to incorporate German, French, Italian, and Romanian. The exchange asserts to aggregate liquidity from various providers and offer sophisticated trading tools suited for European retail and institutional users. On the other hand, the OKX platform includes euro trading pairs, staking products, trading bots, and localized customer support.

The dual launches coincide with the full implementation of MiCA on Dec. 30, 2024. The new regulations standardize crypto regulation across the EU and introduce a passporting mechanism, enabling licensed firms to operate in any EEA country without the requirement for additional approvals.

Notably, the EEA is witnessing heightened activity following the harmonization of its regulatory environment. This week, the Global Dollar (USDG) stablecoin was launched in the EU, with Paxos, the issuer, asserting compliance with MiCA. Earlier, on June 28, Bitvavo crypto exchange received a MiCA license from the Dutch Authority for Financial Markets, enabling it to operate across the EEA. Kraken, one of the world’s longest-standing crypto exchanges, also announced its EEA expansion on June 25 after securing a MiCA license.

Konstantins Vasilenko, co-founder and executive of Paybis, believes that Europe is leading in the global crypto race under its MiCA framework, even surpassing US President Donald Trump’s crypto-friendly America. “Our EU volumes spiked 70% in the first quarter when the MiCA licensing window opened on Jan. 1, 2025; the number of trades remained almost the same, indicating that the new money was major and more thought-out,” Vasilenko pointed out.

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Bitvavo co-founder and CEO, Mark Nuvelstijn, affirmed the development on Friday, voicing his entire backing for the MiCA initiative. “We wholeheartedly endorse the central tenets of MiCAR,” he stated. He further stressed the necessity for consistent rules formulation and enforcement across all European countries to ensure a uniform playing field.

The company’s chief risk officer, Jeetan Patel, described the license acquisition as a result of “constructive collaboration”. He highlighted that the license offers Bitvavo the assurance and clear guidance needed to operate confidently in Europe.

Patel appreciated the AFM’s cooperation throughout the process, which he termed as efficient and rigorous. He added, “In the recent past, we have undertaken all the required steps in the licensing procedure and have confirmed compliance with the comprehensive MiCAR regulatory prerequisites.”

The news follows a series of MiCA license approvals across Europe. Notably, Kraken secured its license from the Central Bank of Ireland, Coinbase from the Luxembourg Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier, and Bybit from Austria’s Financial Market Authority (FMA).

Moreover, in December 2024, MoonPay, a crypto payments company, was approved to operate as a licensed crypto business in the Netherlands under the MiCA legislation. This regulatory framework has triggered a boost in investor confidence across Europe, with trading volumes from EU customers increasing by 70% in Q1 2025, as reported by Paybis’ co-founder and chief business development officer, Konstantins Vasilenko.

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As MiCA approaches its final implementation stages, policymakers are focusing on regulating DeFi, an area that still raises many questions, states Vyara Savova, the senior policy lead at the European Crypto Initiative (EUCI). During an appearance on Cointelegraph’s Chain Reaction X Spaces show on June 4, Savova mentioned that DeFi protocols are still in a regulatory grey area.

According to Savova, there is ambiguity regarding DeFi protocols as they are theoretically beyond MiCA’s scope. She went on to add, “No one actually knows what EU policymakers mean by DeFi.” She predicts that around mid-2026, EU authorities will embark on the task of legally defining decentralization.

Early MiCA framework received substantial criticism due to its weaknesses concerning decentralized protocols. It demanded DeFi platforms to comply with the same licensing and Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements as traditional financial services firms. A significant addition to the bill, Recital 22, stated that “fully decentralized” crypto-asset service providers “should not fall within the scope of this Regulation.”

Despite the MiCA framework being fully implemented at the end of 2024, lawmakers are constantly reviewing it every 12 to 18 months to fill in any potential regulatory gaps. However, contrary to several appeals from Christine Lagarde, the president of the European Central Bank, no progress will be made in the region regarding the MiCA II framework, according to Marina Markezic, executive director and co-founder of EUCI.

She added that current discussions revolving around stablecoins might result in specific legislative updates rather than a complete sequel to MiCA. In the meantime, the EU is yet to introduce new Anti-Money Laundering rules that will limit the use of privacy coins and anonymous crypto accounts. These provisions are expected to come into effect in 2027.

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Mark Jennings, Gemini’s European head, stated, “With the commencement of our business operations, we will be in a position to provide regulated derivatives across the EU and EEA [European Economic Area] under MiFID II.”

Jennings further identified the MiFID II license as a significant milestone in Gemini’s European expansion, bringing it closer to providing derivatives to both retail and institutional customers. The forthcoming derivatives offering in the EU and EEA by Gemini will encompass perpetual futures and other derivatives, targeting advanced Gemini users.

“We will be striving to meet the necessary conditions to roll out these products across Europe in the upcoming months,” Jennings added. According to the records of MFSA, the license for Gemini’s Maltese entity, Gemini Intergalactic EU Artemis, was issued on May 8, 2025.

Despite Gemini’s most recent license signifying the US-based exchange’s ongoing regulatory advancements in Europe, it has yet to receive full MiCA licensing as of May 2025. Earlier in January, Gemini declared Malta as its center for complying with the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework. This decision was taken shortly after Gemini obtained its sixth European virtual asset service provider (VASP) registration from the MFSA in December 2024.

Gemini’s impending crypto derivatives rollout in Europe marks another significant development in the global crypto industry’s growing derivatives trend. On May 8, Coinbase, the US’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, announced the $2.9 billion acquisition of Deribit, one of the largest crypto derivatives platforms globally. This announcement followed closely on the heels of rival exchange Kraken’s confirmation of plans to acquire NinjaTrader, the derivatives trading platform, for $1.5 billion on May 1.

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SEALCOIN is making waves in the crypto universe by demonstrating its ground-breaking satellite-enabled IoT transactions using the WISeSat LEO Constellation. This pioneering feat is pushing the boundaries of IoT, facilitating secure, decentralized microtransactions that go beyond terrestrial limits.

With a -4.49% change in LAES, SEALCOIN’s innovative approach to the Internet of Things (IoT) is drawing attention across Europe and the globe. This endeavour by SEALCOIN is a testament to the endless possibilities of crypto technology when combined with satellite networks.

To keep up with the latest on this breakthrough, log in or create a free account to access the full news on GlobeNewswire.

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“The surging demand for TIA is directly tied to the increasing need for Celestia’s services. All transactions on Celestia are denominated and settled in TIA,” stated Menno Martens, the crypto product manager at VanEck Europe. “With developers increasingly employing Celestia’s services to create high-throughput, full-stack applications, we anticipate significant growth for Celestia.”

The VanEck Celestia ETN, an exchange-traded note (ETN), is listed on Euronext Amsterdam and Euronext Paris, two of the world’s most historic stock exchanges. Celestia, developed using Cosmos’ Tendermint technology, aims to enhance blockchain scalability by separating consensus and data availability functionalities from transaction execution. Validators utilize the TIA token to secure the network and establish the sequence of transactions, which are then processed by other chains.

An ETN is a specific type of ETP that gives investors exposure without the necessity to own the underlying asset. Unlike asset-backed funds, ETNs are unsecured debt obligations.

VanEck has been increasingly active in the blockchain arena. The firm provides various ETNs, mainly in Europe, tracking tokens for Avalanche, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polkadot, Solana, and TRON. They were also among the pioneers to launch a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund. Recently, the firm submitted the first ETF prospectus for a BNB fund listing in the U.S. and was the first to file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a Solana ETF.

VanEck is a global investment management firm established in New York City in 1955. The firm aims to provide investors with access to specialized, often underrepresented asset classes, markets, and strategies predominantly through single-asset or thematic ETPs and private funds.

Disclaimer: This article is meant for informational purposes only and does not constitute as legal, tax, investment, financial, or any other form of advice.

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The iShares Bitcoin ETP, a product of BlackRock, will be listed on Euronext Paris and Xetra under the ticker “IB1T”. Furthermore, it will also be featured on Euronext Amsterdam under the “BTCN” ticker. The ETP is fully backed by Bitcoin, which is securely held by Coinbase Custody International Ltd. in cold storage.

This marks BlackRock’s maiden venture into cryptocurrency-backed ETPs outside North America, as reported by Bloomberg. As of Monday, the iShares Bitcoin Trust, which is BlackRock’s US-based spot Bitcoin ETF, had realized a net inflow of $39.8 billion and a net asset value of $50.69 billion. This makes it the largest among US spot Bitcoin ETFs.

US spot Bitcoin ETFs have been on a winning streak recently, registering positive flows for a consecutive seven days. On Monday alone, these ETFs witnessed $84 million in net inflows and a total trading volume of $1.97 billion, according to data from SoSoValue.

Disclaimer: The Block is an independent news outlet offering research, news, and data. Foresight Ventures, a majority stakeholder in The Block as of November 2023, invests in other crypto-related businesses. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block maintains its independence to provide objective and timely information about the crypto industry. The financial disclosures can be found here.

© 2025 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

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Besides USDT, Kraken will also gradually withdraw support for PayPal USD (PYUSD), Tether EURt (EURT), TrueUSD (TUSD), and TerraClassicUSD (UST) in the European market. The exchange states that these changes are aimed at ensuring long-term compliance and continuing to offer exceptional trading experiences to European clients.

In accordance with the guidelines set by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), Kraken plans a phased delisting process. Initially, by February 13, margin pairs involving the affected assets will be set to “reduce-only” for European Economic Area (EEA) clients. Consequently, EEA users will only be able to reduce or completely close out existing margin positions.

By February 27, the impacted tokens will be put in a “sell-only” mode, preventing EEA clients from generating deposit addresses for tokens like USDT, while still allowing trading. On March 24, Kraken will cease all spot trading for the affected assets, closing all open orders and conversions into other coins or fiat currencies.

Kraken has specified that these delistings will only impact clients in the EEA, including 30 countries such as Austria, Cyprus, Czechia, Malta, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and others. The move follows similar actions by Crypto.com and Coinbase, underlining the increasing compliance requirements within the European Union.

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