MiCA Licenses: Poland Didn’t Miss a Deadline; It Just Missed the Whole Crypto Market

This week marked the end of MiCA’s transitional phase. However, much of Europe’s crypto industry will find it unremarkable, and that’s the point. For 26 of the 27 EU member states, 1 July 2026 was the final close of a licensing window most firms finished months ago.

Not for Poland, though. It is the only member state walking into the deadline without a parachute.

The deadline ends the grandfathering period under Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA), so any crypto-asset service provider (CASP) serving EU clients without a CASP license is now in breach of directly applicable law. There is no further extension beyond this point

What must be remembered is that MiCA isn’t a directive but a regulation that applies fully to every EU member state, regardless of each nation’s preparation for administering it, and now that the deadline has passed, it is in full effect. 

But before MiCA even became fully operational, the European Commission had already begun looking into updating its regulatory framework, moving to keep the legal architecture current with a fast-moving crypto market.

Meanwhile, Poland refused to give it its financial regulator the authority to issue licenses under the MiCA regulation. As a MiCA license issued anywhere in the EU grants the holder access to the entire 27-nation bloc, it is meant to be a major step forward. The replacement of national licensing systems with a single passport operating across the entire EU was intended to reduce risk and open the European market to global liquidity. 

Without a fully functional domestic licensing system, Poland could suffer significant losses in the post-MiCA EU.

New EU crypto rules, one clear loser: Poland

The EU crypto market is in a new era post-MiCA. Crypto firms serving customers in Europe must obtain a license to continue operating or face closure. 

It was estimated that between 200 and 210 firms were licensed, compared with more than 1,200 Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) registrations. Meaning that more than 80% would have to wind down, sell, or passport in from a licensed group entity. 

This is not ideal, but Poland’s situation stands out as particularly dire. After the third presidential veto on June 11th, the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) still can’t issue a Polish CASP license. 

While in other member states such as France or Germany, firms failed to get licensed mainly due to a lack of application, late applications, or simply not meeting license requirements, Poland stands out. Even if a firm does everything correctly and meets all MiCA-based requirements, the current situation prevents it from being authorized and may lead to the loss of its domestic market share without any fault of its own. 

Polish crypto holders won’t lose their assets, but they may lose access to domestically legitimate platforms for holding and trading them. 

MiCA was deliberately designed around passporting. Once a CASP is authorized in one EU state, it can notify authorities and provide services in any EU state under the same passport. 

Because Poland doesn’t have a competent authority designated, users are at risk of losing services from Polish-licensed crypto firms and are looking abroad at cross-border passporting by firms licensed elsewhere. 

These include Kraken and Coinbase via Ireland, Bitstamp via Luxembourg, OKX and Crypto.com via Malta, as well as Bitpanda, Bitvavo and Revolut. Binance is also considering applying for a license in France after withdrawing its application mere days before the deadline.

If a platform isn’t on ESMA’s public CASP register under one of those authorizations, then you must move to a passported CASP or a self-hosted wallet before withdrawals tighten.

The losers here are easy to name

Now, if we zoom out from individual platforms to Poland’s national crypto register, you’ll find about 1,800 entries, although many are inactive or dormant. Only a small proportion of Polish operators have secured MiCA authorization elsewhere in Europe.

So, the losers here are easy to name: Polish-only operators with no second jurisdiction and their millions of customers who now have to scramble to MiCA-approved platforms.

The Polish state itself stands to lose greatly, having exported the supervision, employment, and tax base of its own market to Vilnius, Frankfurt, Paris, and Valleta, all in member states that have completed their MiCA implementation.

All the while, other states with functioning regimes, like Germany, which alone has issued roughly 25% of all EU authorizations, continue to grow. Don’t forget that already-licensed exchanges can inherit the Polish market for free, and these firms are now buying licensed shells in Lithuania, Estonia, Czechia and Malta. 

Ironically, the presidential veto was touted as a way to protect Polish entrepreneurs from overregulation. In practice, it has strengthened competitors by acting as an export subsidy. It didn’t produce a lighter-touch crypto market; it produced no Polish crypto market with a domestic license at all, leaving it open to whoever holds the right license. We’re left with a policy that nobody actually wanted.

About the Author: Wojciech Kaszycki is CSO of BTCS S.A. (NewConnect: BTF), a publicly listed Polish digital-asset company.