The Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AMLA) has issued a stark warning about the impact of MiCA's transitional period ending on July 1, 2026. According to Bruna Szego, chair of AMLA, crypto companies exiting the European Union market could face a surge in customer withdrawal requests, while licensed virtual asset service providers (VASPs) may struggle to onboard large numbers of new users without weakening compliance standards. Speaking during a Wednesday briefing before the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, Szego emphasized that firms winding down operations should be prepared for increased customer activity as users transfer their assets before services end. The warning comes after the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) instructed firms that remained unauthorized after the deadline to take immediate steps to wind down their EU operations, leaving customers to migrate to licensed providers.
Two major cryptocurrency infrastructure companies have achieved significant regulatory milestones in Europe, positioning them for expanded operations across the continent. Bridge, owned by Stripe, has secured dual regulatory authorization in Luxembourg, obtaining both a Crypto Asset Service Provider authorisation under MiCA and an Electronic Money Institution licence. According to Coin Edition, this dual licensing approach provides single-regulatory coverage across all 27 EU member states, eliminating the need for separate country-by-country licensing. Meanwhile, Ripple received full MiCA CASP authorization from Luxembourg's CSSF last week, achieving end-to-end regulated crypto payments available to financial institutions across all 30 EEA countries. As reported by crypto.news, the company previously secured full approval as an Electronic Money Institution on February 2, 2026, allowing the company to issue electronic money and run regulated fiat payment services across the European Union.
AMLA has announced plans to publish a comprehensive report examining money laundering risks across the crypto sector before the end of the year. According to Szego, the report will compare how regulators supervise CASPs across member states and identify differences that could require coordinated follow-up work between AMLA and national authorities. The authority is also expanding its blockchain analytics capabilities to strengthen oversight of crypto-asset service providers. During the parliamentary briefing, Szego stated that AMLA plans to publish a report examining money laundering risks alongside supervisory practices used by national authorities. This represents the next stage of MiCA oversight as European authorities concentrate on how licensed firms operate after receiving approval.
The regulatory approvals create meaningful competitive advantages in Europe's shrunken crypto service landscape. According to crypto.news, the transition period ended on July 1, 2026, with any firm offering covered crypto services without CASP authorization required to limit or stop those services. The European Securities and Markets Authority added 57 newly approved firms to its register after the deadline, bringing the total to around 300 authorized providers, while only approximately 210 of the more than 1,200 incumbent companies completed the licensing process in time. Major competitors like Binance and Tether failed to secure authorization in time, creating competitive advantages for both Ripple and Bridge in the European market. Recent ESMA data shows that only about 280 firms held CASP approval after MiCAR's transition, underscoring the limited competition and meaningfully improving both companies' regulated market access and adoption prospects.
Recent regulatory activity indicates that European authorities are now concentrating on how licensed firms operate after receiving approval. Last week, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) began a Common Supervisory Action covering selected MiCA-authorized crypto-asset service providers. According to ESMA, the review examines custody operations, including private key management, transaction controls, incident response procedures and reliance on third-party technology providers. The review is intended to test whether authorized firms can maintain effective operational safeguards in practice rather than relying solely on their MiCA licenses. Meanwhile, European policymakers continue discussing possible changes to MiCA after its rollout, with officials considering future revisions to stablecoin rules, including the treatment of non-euro-denominated stablecoins, following the passage of the United States' GENIUS Act. The European Parliament has also asked the European Commission to examine whether decentralized finance, staking, crypto lending and borrowing, non-fungible tokens and tokenized financial assets should receive more specific treatment under the EU's crypto framework.
