Following the holidays and the end of the grandfathering period, the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority has ramped up its processing of MiCA applications to address recent industry and market uncertainties.
The MiCA Market in Crypto-Assets regulations are being implemented across Europe, enabling a single MiCA license issued in one country to be passported to all other EU/EEA countries, opening access to a market of 450 million people. However, each country has its own legal decision process and sets the end date for the transition period between national licenses and MiCA licenses, known as the grandfathering period.
Finland is among the countries with the shortest transition period of six months. By the time the grandfathering period ended and the summer holidays began, only one license had been granted. This situation created uncertainties within both the industry and the market, which were also highlighted by VASPnet, monitoring the MiCA rollout across Europe closely.
Kaupr has therefore been in contact with the Financial Supervisory Authority, FIN-FSA.
“Finland has implemented one of the shortest MiCA transition periods in the EU to ensure a swift alignment with the new regulatory framework. While this has posed challenges for some market participants, we are committed to processing license applications efficiently and transparently, Maria Rekola, Head of Division, Capital Markets Supervision in FIN-FSA, says to Kaupr.
Rekola continues: “We encourage consumers to verify the regulatory status of any crypto service provider and remain cautious, as MiCA does not eliminate all risks associated with crypto-assets, such as fraud, volatility, or cybersecurity threats”.
The Financial Supervisory Authority has also shared the current status with Kaupr.
In addition, the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority has shared the following recommendations, which have also been communicated to the applicants.
“Applicants who are in the process of obtaining a MiCA-authorisation but have not yet received it are instructed to cease all marketing activities, stop accepting new clients, and in some cases to refrain from executing or transmitting orders for existing clients – preventing clients from trading on the platform.
However, existing clients must retain the right to withdraw or continue storing their crypto-assets within the company's service for the time being. Furthermore, companies must ensure they have adequate preparedness to wind down their operations in an orderly manner if they do not receive the required authorization by November 1, 2025.”
Kvarn Capital Oy, Tesseract Investment Oy, NorthCrypto Oy and Bittimaatti Oy are the four companies currently awaiting a decision.
As confirmed by the Financial Supervisory Authority, Coinmotion received its MiCA-compliant license in June. Coinmotion subsequently published a press release titled (the article is in Finnish: “Coinmotion received the EU MiCA regulation-compliant operating license – cryptocurrency investing is becoming an increasingly attractive investment option for many”.
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