Which crypto exchanges actually hold an EU MiCA licence — and where

Binance shut its EU services on 1 July because it didn't hold a MiCA licence — the EU's crypto rulebook now requires one to serve EU users. The obvious next question for anyone with a stranded balance is: which exchanges are licensed? It sounds like a simple lookup. It isn't, because a lot of the "MiCA-licensed exchanges" lists floating around are wrong. So here's the checked version, straight from the official register.

First, two things worth knowing. A MiCA licence (formally a CASP authorisation — Crypto-Asset Service Provider) is granted by one EU country's regulator, and once an exchange has it, it can "passport" the licence across the whole EU without a separate one per country. And the single authoritative list of who holds one is ESMA's CASP register — not the comparison blogs, several of which get it wrong. One widely-shared list still had Binance down as fully licensed while I was checking, which is the exact opposite of what happened this month.

Who actually holds a MiCA licence

As of the register sync on 14 July 2026, these major exchanges are authorised, each through the EU country shown (which is the country whose regulator licensed the specific legal entity — worth noting, because aggregators often file exchanges under the wrong one):

• Coinbase — Luxembourg (licensed by the CSSF). Note: Coinbase's Irish entity is only an e-money firm; its CASP home is Luxembourg.
• Kraken — Ireland (Central Bank of Ireland).
• OKX — Malta (MFSA).
• Crypto.com — Malta (MFSA).
• Gemini — Malta (MFSA).
• Bitstamp — Luxembourg (CSSF).
• Bitpanda — Austria (FMA).
• Bybit — Austria (FMA). Its authorisation covers custody and exchange, but not every crypto service.
• eToro — Cyprus (CySEC). One of the first platforms to hold a MiCA licence (early 2025), passporting across the EU. (eToro is our partner — see its current sign-up reward; the disclosure below applies.)

A couple of caveats before you read this as a clean green light. Malta's fast-track licensing of several big names drew an ESMA peer-review, so "licensed in Malta" has been under extra scrutiny. And at least one exchange on the register — KuCoin — was authorised in Austria but then hit with a supervisory onboarding ban over missing anti-money-laundering functions, which is a reminder that "on the register" and "unrestricted and problem-free" are not the same thing.

And who isn't

Binance is not on the ESMA register. It withdrew its licence application in Greece in late June and is winding down EU services; it has said it will reapply elsewhere (reportedly France), but as of now it holds no MiCA authorisation. If you see a list that says otherwise, that list is wrong — which is the whole reason to check the primary source rather than a comparison table.

For context, around 280 providers hold a MiCA licence as of mid-July 2026, spread across 25 EU/EEA countries, with Germany, France, the Netherlands and Malta hosting the most. The number changes every week as more firms are added, so treat any snapshot — including this one — as exactly that.

If you're moving a balance off an exchange that's leaving the EU, the practical step is the boring one: look up the exact legal entity of wherever you're considering on ESMA's own register before you send anything, and don't rely on a blog's list. This is a regulatory observation, not a recommendation of any exchange or of holding crypto at all — we don't tell you where to put your money — and crypto carries a high risk of rapid loss wherever it's held. The register is linked below; it's the one source worth trusting here.

Disclosure: eToro is a partner of ours, so if you open an account through our eToro sign-up reward link we may earn a commission — at no extra cost to you. It doesn't change the facts above: eToro is listed here because it holds a MiCA licence, alongside the others, and the ESMA register is still the source to check.