Part 1 of 3
The doors into the regime
Every legitimate MiCA authority was obtained through one of a small number of doors — and knowing the doors is what lets you read a register entry, or an entity’s claim, precisely. This part names each door and what comes through it.
Door one: the CASP authorisation
The main door. A legal person applies to its home member state’s authority, files the harmonised application, survives the completeness and quality review, and receives an authorisation naming which of the ten services it covers. The grant is valid across the Union — the register entry it produces is the one everything in part 3 checks.
Check yourself
What exactly does a CASPCrypto-asset service provider — a firm authorised under MiCA to provide one or more of the ten listed crypto-asset services in the EU. One home-state authorisation covers the whole Union. authorisation name, beyond the firm?
Door two: the notification, for firms already licensed
A credit institution, investment firm, e-money institution, fund manager, central securities depository or market operator does not re-apply from scratch: it notifies its authority at least 40 working days before providing crypto-asset services — for some of them, only the services matching their existing licence. The register consequence matters for part 3: these firms’ crypto authority traces to a notification against an existing licence, not to a fresh CASPCrypto-asset service provider — a firm authorised under MiCA to provide one or more of the ten listed crypto-asset services in the EU. One home-state authorisation covers the whole Union. grant.
Check yourself
A major bank offers crypto custody but has no CASPCrypto-asset service provider — a firm authorised under MiCA to provide one or more of the ten listed crypto-asset services in the EU. One home-state authorisation covers the whole Union. authorisation of its own. Is something wrong?
Doors three and four: the issuer titles
Token issuers enter elsewhere, as the course’s Section 4 teaches from zero: an ARTAsset-referenced token — a crypto-asset claiming to hold a stable value by referencing anything other than exactly one official currency: a basket, gold, another asset. MiCA checks e-money tokens first; ART is the stablecoin residual (Title III). issuer through its own bespoke authorisation (or a credit institution’s door), an EMTE-money token — a crypto-asset claiming a stable value by referencing exactly one official currency, such as the euro. Only credit institutions and e-money institutions may issue them (MiCA Title IV). issuer only as a credit institution or e-money institution with a notified white paperThe disclosure document MiCA requires before most crypto-assets are offered to the public or admitted to trading — contents prescribed, liability attached, notified to the regulator.. For register purposes the trace differs again: an EMT claim is checked against the white-paper register and the issuer’s e-money or banking licence, not against the CASPCrypto-asset service provider — a firm authorised under MiCA to provide one or more of the ten listed crypto-asset services in the EU. One home-state authorisation covers the whole Union. roll.
The corridor: taking a licence across borders
One authorisation, thirty markets — but not silently. A CASPCrypto-asset service provider — a firm authorised under MiCA to provide one or more of the ten listed crypto-asset services in the EU. One home-state authorisation covers the whole Union. intending to provide services in more than one member state submits the list of states, services and start date to its home authority, which passes it on within 10 working days. So a firm’s lawful footprint is knowable: home state, named services, and the states it notified for.
Check yourself
An entity authorised in one member state is marketing hard in yours. What makes that lawful — and checkable?
So what— So what — when anyone says “we are licensed”, ask which door: a CASPCrypto-asset service provider — a firm authorised under MiCA to provide one or more of the ten listed crypto-asset services in the EU. One home-state authorisation covers the whole Union. grant, a notification against another licence, an issuer title? Each door leaves a different paper trail, and part 3’s method follows the trail the claimed door should have left.
As at — instrument lifecycle stages verified 2026-08-26 to 2026-08-27, per instrument (each citation above shows its own date); register figures are from the dated snapshots of 24 August 2026. The doors read from the held Regulation text (Arts 16, 48, 59, 60, 63, 65) for this part.
Next — Part 2: The registers, and the watch →