The short answer
Since 1 July 2026, serving clients in the European Union without a CASP licence is not allowed. We checked the twenty-five venues we monitor against the ESMA register: nine are listed, the rest are not.
CASP licence: who has it and who doesn’t
CASP-licensed 9
Not in the register 16
One thing to take away immediately: absence from the register does not mean an exchange is closing. Some deliberately narrowed their services for Europe, some filed an application and are waiting, and some never entered the European market as regulated firms at all. Each case is broken down below.
What MiCA is and what changed on 1 July
MiCA is the European regulation on markets in crypto-assets. It introduces a single status, CASP: crypto-asset service provider. Granted by the regulator of one country, it lets a venue operate across the whole European Economic Area without a separate permit in each — this is what passporting means.
One licence — the whole European Economic Area
Until 1 July 2026 a transition period applied: firms already operating in their own countries under national rules could continue without a European licence. It has ended, and from that day a venue is either in the register or not entitled to serve clients in the EEA.
The transition period is over
Who holds a CASP licence
The licence is issued by a specific country's regulator, and the register records the legal entity, not the trading brand. That matters in practice: to find a venue in the register you search by the company name.
Legal entity and regulator of each platform
The geography makes sense: Malta and Austria opened to applications earlier than the rest and processed them faster, so most large venues went there. The supervising country does not limit the market — the licence works across the whole EEA.
Who is missing from the register
"No licence" is not one status but three different positions, and they are worth telling apart.
No licence isn’t one single status
For a user the difference is practical. A venue that filed an application will most likely return to the European field; one that narrowed its services keeps working with some EEA functions switched off; one that is winding down sends out withdrawal deadlines. And the thirteen at the bottom of the list simply never entered the European market as regulated firms — which does not hold them back for cross-exchange operations.
What the licence changes in practice
The regulation is neither a quality mark nor a guarantee of returns. It changes three concrete things.
What changes for an EU user
Euro bank rails run smoothly. Unlicensed platforms lose them first — partner banks won’t deal with unregulated counterparties.
Client money is segregated, reserves are disclosed. Not deposit insurance, but an obligation someone answers for.
A licence doesn’t make a platform technically safer, but it makes it predictable: a regulated exchange won’t vanish in two weeks.
- order book depth
- cheap transfers
- a wide listing
The widest listings in the review are unlicensed. A licence is about rules, not the market.
And, separately, what it does not give: it does not make a venue technically more reliable, it has no effect on order book depth, and it does not insure your money the way a bank deposit is insured. It is rules and supervision, not a guarantee.
What the licensed venues look like in numbers
A licence is a condition of entry, not a reason to pick a venue. After that the ordinary questions begin: how many pairs, how many contracts, what a withdrawal costs. Every figure below is gathered by our own collectors straight from the venues and refreshed every few minutes.
Inside the licensed exchanges
★ — best value in the column. Click a header to sort.
| Platform | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gate | 2,038 | 1,070 | 26 | 0.05Arbitrum |
| KuCoin | 817 | 707 | 18 | 0.5TON |
| BingX | 637 | 964 | 11 | 0.017TON |
| OKX | 467 | 517 | 16 | 0.0031Arbitrum |
| Bybit | 388 | 822 | 20 | 0.07Polygon |
| WhiteBIT | 326 | 395 | 12 | 0.5Solana |
| Crypto.comquotes in USD, not USDT | 123 | 389 | — | directory closed |
| Krakenworks with EUR and USD directly | 44 | 209 | — | directory closed |
The numeric columns sort. Current values for any venue are always on the exchange comparison pages.
Which one to pick for the job
"Best European exchange" means nothing until you say what for. Four typical jobs and the venue that fits each.
Which licensed exchange fits you
Deposit euros and buy coins
Lowest USDT withdrawal fee among licensed platforms
Maximum instruments inside the regulated perimeter
Futures and delta-neutral pairs: funding rates are open for every contract
How to check the status yourself
The list of licensed firms grows every week, and any table, ours included, goes stale. Before funding an account the status is worth re-checking — three steps and five minutes.
How to check an exchange yourself
The primary source. Search for the legal entity, not the brand.
Licensed platforms usually show the permit at the bottom of the page. If it’s nowhere — that’s your answer.
The key point. Big platforms run several entities: an EU client may be served by an offshore one. Check the agreement shown to your account.
The third step matters more than the first two. Large venues run several legal entities, and a European client may be served either by the licensed company or by an offshore one, depending on where the account was opened. What counts is the agreement attached to your own account.
What follows from all this
MiCA did not shrink the choice — it split the market in two, and each half has its own strength.
MiCA split the market in two
- Euro banking rails
- Predictable rules
- Wider listings
- Cheaper transfers
The working setup is simple: bring euros in where there is a licence and the banking rails work, and look for price gaps where the market is wider. Which route between venues is cheapest right now is visible in the cross-exchange routes.