KuCoin EU Exchange GmbH has secured a Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) license from the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA), completing an application filed in February 2025 and finalised in November 2025. The authorisation enables regulated trading, custody and other CASP services with passporting across most of the EEA, though national frictions remain visible in Malta’s exclusion and ongoing debate in France.
MiCA establishes a harmonised regulatory foundation for EU-wide crypto activity
MiCA is the EU’s comprehensive regulatory framework for crypto-assets. It standardises obligations for issuers and platforms across member states and allows a licence granted in one jurisdiction to be used to operate across the EEA through passporting. Under this licence, KuCoin must comply with MiCA-mandated AML controls, investor protection rules, capital minimums, whitepaper publication requirements and CASP-level governance and reporting.
The Austrian licence activates full MiCA applicability for KuCoin EU. It extends regulated access into roughly 29 EU/EEA jurisdictions, while remaining exposed to reservations such as Malta’s exclusion and potential passporting limitations under consideration in France.
Vienna has been established as the exchange’s European headquarters. Leadership under CEO Oliver Stauber and COO Christian Niedermueller is tasked with converting regulatory requirements into operational systems, staffing and compliance frameworks.
Strategically, the licence positions KuCoin alongside peers pursuing MiCA approval to anchor EU market access. Projections cited during the application indicated a shift toward regulated venues, with expected migration of over 70% of EU crypto activity to authorised exchanges by Q1 2025, up from 48% in 2024, alongside market capacity estimates of €1 trillion.
For operational teams, obligations intensify across governance, auditability and resilience. Fund segregation, solvency testing and heightened stablecoin-handling scrutiny raise internal demands even as passporting broadens distribution potential. Custodians and issuers benefit from reduced legal ambiguity but face heavier reporting and compliance workloads.
For platform operators, passporting delivers scale advantages while requiring management of country-level deviations that could restrict licence recognition. Austria’s swift alignment with MiCA was a key jurisdictional draw and is expected to shape KuCoin’s staffing, supervisory engagement and internal control design.
The MiCA licence granted to KuCoin EU represents a definitive regulatory transition. It elevates the firm to a fully authorised CASP within the EEA, expanding cross-border reach while increasing enforceable obligations and operational oversight.