Overview
- MiCA’s transition deadline on July 1 required crypto firms without EU authorisation to stop offering regulated services to EU clients and to wind down or transfer customer assets.
- Regulators have recorded a rise in fraud that poses as ESMA, national watchdogs or authorised platforms using cloned websites, fake documents and requests for login details or wallet recovery phrases to steal funds.
- ESMA’s interim register showed about 323 MiCA‑authorised providers in its late‑July update while private estimates suggested many hundreds more legacy firms would need to cease EU services.
- The MiCA Crypto Alliance launched the MiCA CASP Tracker on Aug. 5 to turn ESMA’s public data into a searchable directory, but the Alliance and regulators stress the tracker is independent and ESMA’s register remains the authoritative source.
- Regulators advise users never to share private keys or seed phrases, to use official platform channels and national or ESMA registers to verify instructions, to preserve evidence of suspicious contact, and to report fraud to the platform and law enforcement.