$USDC Some countries like France, Germany, or Austria have dedicated crypto licensing regimes in place, while others like Ireland have created AML registration obligations. Outside of those mentioned, many countries didn’t have any regulatory frameworks in place for crypto businesses. Navigating the complex national regulatory patchwork of 27 different rulebooks became a very costly and burdensome endeavor. Undoubtedly, this has constrained the growth of EU startups, and limited their competitiveness vis-a-vis their US or Asian counterparts. Under MiCA, the same binding EU requirements will apply to all 27 member countries. Once a company has been granted a MiCA license in one country, it will be able to “passport” it and offer the licensed service throughout the entire single EU crypto market.

With MiCA in force, offshore, unregulated companies will no longer be able to target EU consumers pro-actively. Not least due to the recent FTX meltdown, the reverse solicitation rules, i.e. the rules under which foreign businesses can onboard EU customers that act on their own initiative, can be expected to be stricter than for other financial service providers in traditional markets. This may lead to MiCA-regulated crypto businesses gaining significant EU market share from their offshore, unregulated competitors.