The European Commission has begun a review of MiCA regulation and is trying to understand whether the current rules are keeping up with how quickly the crypto market is changing.
Right now in the EU there is a discussion about whether MiCA needs new amendments and whether some parts of the regulation are becoming outdated too quickly.
MiCA was originally the first major set of rules for the crypto market to be fully supported by one of the world’s largest economies.
Other regions have been closely watching how Europe implements these rules. Especially countries in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, where they are also gradually trying to build their own crypto regulation.
MiCA Review Has Begun
Since MiCA launched, the crypto market has already gone through several major cycles of growth and decline.
The total market capitalization rose from about $3.3 trillion in spring 2025 to $4.2 trillion in the fall of the same year. Now the figure is around $2.6 trillion.
Bitcoin also dropped significantly over the past year and at the time of publication was trading around $77,463.
Against this backdrop, the European Commission decided to check whether the current version of MiCA actually matches the current state of the market.
To do this, the EU launched two discussion processes at once. The first is an open public consultation for anyone interested. The second is a separate survey for crypto market participants and related companies.
Token issuers, crypto services, banks, tech companies, researchers, and government agencies can participate in the discussion. Both stages will last until August 31.
The main focus now is on the key parts of MiCA. The discussion is centered on rules for asset-referenced tokens, digital payment tokens, and other crypto assets that are not yet regulated by EU financial laws.
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Separately, Europe is again discussing the obligations of CASP — companies that operate crypto exchanges, custodial services, and other crypto platforms.
New Crypto Rules May Change Again
The timing for the MiCA review was not chosen by chance. Everything is happening right before important deadlines for crypto companies that are still operating under temporary permits.
This concerns companies that were operating before December 30, 2024, and received a transition period to obtain a full MiCA license.
In some countries, this period is ending very soon.
For example, France, Malta, Luxembourg and Estonia used the maximum transition period of 18 months, so their deadline will be July 1, 2026.
But some countries decided to shorten the period even further. In the Netherlands and Poland the transition period ended by mid-2025. Germany, Austria and Ireland also chose a shorter scheme of about a year, and it has already ended.
Meanwhile, during the existence of MiCA the global crypto regulation market has also changed significantly. Europe is no longer the only one trying to build comprehensive rules for digital assets.
In the US during this time, regulation of stablecoins and the structure of the crypto market has started to advance actively. Hong Kong launched its own licensing system for crypto platforms with strict retail trading controls back in 2023. The UAE also established a separate VARA structure that regulates the digital asset market in Dubai and issues its own licenses for crypto companies.
At the same time, within the crypto market itself, attitudes toward MiCA remain mixed. Some companies consider European regulation to be among the clearest and most predictable in major regions. Because of this, many crypto exchanges and services have recently started to obtain licenses in the EU more actively.
But there is another side. Some market participants complain that the MiCA rules are too burdensome for small crypto companies and startups. There are especially many questions about requirements for reserves, reporting, and working with stablecoins.
Because of this, some projects prefer to launch not in Europe, but in more flexible jurisdictions like the UAE, Hong Kong or Singapore.
There is also discussion in the market that overly strict regulation could slow the development of the European crypto sector, especially as the US and Asia begin to compete more actively for crypto business and Web3 companies.
