MiCA

The EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, the first comprehensive digital-asset framework in a major economy. Stablecoin provisions applied from June 2024 and the broader service-provider regime from December 2024, with national transition periods running past those dates.

It works through two mechanisms. Issuers of asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens face reserve composition, redemption-at-par and disclosure requirements, with tighter constraints on tokens referencing currencies other than the euro. Separately, crypto-asset service providers need authorization in one member state and can then passport across the bloc, which is the provision the industry actually reorganized itself around.

For institutions the significant part is that MiCA converts crypto exposure from a jurisdictional judgement call into a licensing question with an answer. That clarity is what makes European allocations approvable in ways they were not before. It also sets a template other regimes are drafting against, so the reserve and redemption language is worth reading even for firms with no European presence.