Crypto firms face July 1 EU cutoff as MiCA grace period ends
EU crypto firms face a hard MiCA deadline on July 1, when transitional national regimes end. From then on, service providers without MiCA authorization must stop serving EU clients; pending applications do not provide protection. ESMA says firms should prepare wind-down and customer migration plans rather than expect continued operation. National regulators are enforcing this differently: France says unauthorized providers must cease activity and may face criminal penalties, blacklists, public warnings, and website blocks. Germany requires former exempt providers to obtain authorization by June 30 and may use enforcement measures. Austria ended grandfathering earlier, so no exchanges there are operating without a license. Many users may be affected because a large share of European crypto activity still appears tied to non-authorized platforms. Several major exchanges, including Bitget and Binance, are still seeking approval in EU jurisdictions.
