Only 281 of 1,343 crypto service providers operating across the European Economic Area have secured MiCA authorization after the EU’s final transition period expired on July 1, leaving more than 1,000 firms without approval under the bloc’s licensing regime.

According to blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs, 1,062 firms in its dataset had not obtained authorization under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation by the deadline and must now leave the market, restructure their operations or transfer customers to an authorized provider.

The gap extends beyond licensing. TRM found that 12% of firms without authorization carry a High or Severe risk rating, compared with 2% of authorized providers, while every firm assigned a Severe rating belonged to the unauthorized group.

Most providers in both groups have little direct contact with illicit funds. However, TRM identified a small number of unauthorized firms sending between 1% and 12% of their volume directly to illicit addresses. No authorized provider recorded direct illicit exposure above 1%.

MiCA authorization has left more than 1,000 firms outside the regime

Before MiCA, crypto companies operated under separate registration or licensing systems maintained by individual European countries, creating major differences in the requirements firms faced depending on where they registered.

TRM identified 383 operating firms under Lithuania’s previous registration system and 241 in Poland. Poland’s official register contained more than 1,800 entries, although the blockchain intelligence firm said most showed no observable crypto activity.

At the other end, Slovenia had three identified providers and Belgium had two. TRM cautioned that its figures track firms it could identify as actually providing crypto services rather than every entry on national registers, meaning countries without public registers may be undercounted.

MiCA replaced the national systems with a common authorization framework. Companies legally operating before Dec. 30, 2024, could continue under Article 143(3) while seeking authorization during the transition period, with July 1 serving as the final EU-wide cutoff.

As crypto.news explained shortly before the deadline, individual member states were allowed to set shorter transition periods, but none could extend the grandfathering system beyond July 1. Firms without the required authorization after their applicable deadline could no longer legally provide covered crypto services in the EU.

Licensing numbers had already shown how much the market could contract. In May, the ESMA register contained 204 authorized CASPs, including 51 approved during the first five months of 2026. Germany accounted for 55 at the time, followed by the Netherlands with 25 and France with 17.

A separate June report found that more than 3,000 crypto firms had been registered across Europe before MiCA, while only 194 had secured authorization by May. Hogan Lovells estimated at the time that roughly 75% of firms registered under the previous systems could lose their status as national transition periods expired.

Germany and smaller EU states have taken more firms through MiCA

Authorization has been uneven across individual European jurisdictions, according to TRM’s July 1 dataset.

Germany authorized 55 firms, while France and the Netherlands each authorized 29. Malta approved 20 and Cyprus 19, compared with nine home authorizations issued by Italy despite 145 firms operating there.

Malta, Cyprus, Ireland and Luxembourg together accounted for 63 of 272 home authorizations identified by TRM, even though only 101 operating firms came from their previous registers.

Lithuania produced a very different conversion rate. Eight firms obtained authorization from a previous register containing more than 400 providers, while Poland issued none despite its old register exceeding 1,800 entries. Greece and Portugal also issued no home authorizations in TRM’s dataset.

The figures also show how MiCA’s passporting system can separate where a provider operates from which regulator supervises it. Germany’s BaFin authorized 55 of the 57 licensed providers operating in the country, while Italy hosted 37 licensed firms but issued nine home authorizations. Spain hosted 34 and authorized 12.

Under MiCA, a CASP approved in one member state can use passporting rights to provide covered services elsewhere in the bloc. For example, B2C2 secured Luxembourg authorization in May, allowing the liquidity provider to offer regulated over-the-counter spot crypto trading across all 27 EU member states and three additional EEA markets.

The same system has allowed firms including Coinbase, Bitpanda and Kraken to operate from different regulatory bases while serving customers across multiple European markets.

By July 3, ESMA’s interim register had expanded to 300 authorized crypto-asset service providers after 57 additional firms were added around the July 1 deadline, including Standard Chartered and FalconX.

Unauthorized firms carry higher risk ratings and sanctions exposure

Looking beyond license numbers, TRM found a clear difference in the risk profiles of the two groups.

About 12% of unauthorized firms received a High or Severe rating, six times the 2% recorded among authorized providers. Severe ratings were found exclusively among firms that failed to obtain authorization.

Direct exposure to illicit or high-risk counterparties was much closer when measured across each group as a whole. Unauthorized providers recorded 0.09% of outgoing volume directly involving such counterparties, compared with 0.07% among licensed firms.

High-risk exchanges and gambling services accounted for the largest exposures. Unauthorized firms sent $19 billion to high-risk exchanges and $15.3 billion to gambling services, while authorized providers recorded $14.2 billion and $13.4 billion, respectively.

Sanctions exposure produced a larger difference. TRM calculated that unauthorized firms sent $5 billion directly to sanctioned counterparties, roughly three times the $1.7 billion recorded among authorized firms.

Risk within the unauthorized group was heavily concentrated. Half of the firms showed no measurable direct illicit exposure, while a limited number sent between 1% and 12% of their volume directly to illicit addresses. TRM calculated that direct illicit exposure among the offboarding firms was about four times higher because of those outliers.

The unauthorized cohort also included HTX, which TRM described as a designated exchange, and Huione Pay, which has been named under U.S. special measures. Entities affected by EU measures restricting dealings connected to Russia were also among firms that held national registrations but did not obtain MiCA authorization.

The composition of the two groups differed as well. Exchanges accounted for 42% of unauthorized providers compared with 29% of authorized firms, while payment companies represented 16% and 9%, respectively.

Financial and investment service providers were more common among authorized CASPs, making up 25% and 21% of the group, compared with 9% and 7% among unauthorized firms. TRM’s High-Risk Exchange category appeared only among providers that did not obtain authorization.

Customer transfers are creating a new supervisory test

With more than 1,000 firms outside the authorization regime, the EU’s Anti-Money Laundering Authority has focused on what happens when their customers and assets move elsewhere.

AMLA said the end of the transition period would cause unauthorized virtual asset service providers to leave the market, customer relationships to be transferred or terminated, and crypto activity to become concentrated among fewer authorized CASPs.

During wind-downs, compressed exit schedules can place pressure on anti-money laundering controls and make it harder to track where customers and funds move, according to the authority. Receiving CASPs can simultaneously face changes in their customer risk profiles and additional demands on transaction monitoring systems.

AMLA has therefore asked supervisors to prioritize oversight of exit plans and customer transfers while coordinating with regulators in other jurisdictions when customers move across borders.

TRM identified 30 unauthorized providers with High or Severe risk ratings, giving receiving firms and supervisors a group that can be screened before customer migrations take place.

The firm also cautioned against treating all customers leaving unauthorized providers as equally risky. Most firms that failed to secure authorization still carried Low risk ratings and recorded negligible direct illicit exposure.

For receiving CASPs, TRM said entity-level screening can distinguish customers arriving from a Low-rated payment provider with little illicit exposure from those leaving a Severe-rated entity where a measurable share of transaction volume has moved directly to illicit addresses.

Regulators have also started examining authorized providers after completing much of the initial licensing work. In July, ESMA launched a review of a sample of MiCA-authorized crypto custodians, examining areas including custody controls, private-key management, incident response and risks tied to third-party providers.

TRM separately examined whether regulators issuing more licenses were also supervising firms with higher illicit exposure. Across 23 jurisdictions where licensed providers carried measurable transaction volume, it found no identified correlation between the number of authorizations issued and the illicit exposure of firms supervised there.

For financial institutions assessing counterparties, TRM said the number of CASP licenses granted by a firm’s home jurisdiction therefore provides little information about the individual provider’s risk. Its analysis instead found the differences at entity level, including individual risk ratings and direct exposure to illicit, sanctioned and other high-risk counterparties.

Payments firm Decta says it is adding Circle’s USDC to the back-end of its international treasury operations, using OpenPayd to convert fiat into the stablecoin for internal settlement across markets. The move highlights a growing pattern in crypto: stablecoins are increasingly used as infrastructure for liquidity and operational transfers, rather than as a branded payment option for customers.

Decta told Cointelegraph that the company will route its own funds through OpenPayd’s regulated infrastructure, where they are converted into USDC via OpenPayd’s over-the-counter capabilities. OpenPayd then supports international operational settlements that Decta would otherwise complete through conventional banking processes.

Key takeaways

• Decta will use USDC for internal treasury settlement across markets, positioning the stablecoin as a back-end liquidity tool rather than a customer payment feature.
• The conversion and settlement is handled through OpenPayd’s regulated infrastructure and OTC capabilities.
• Decta frames the change as an operational efficiency upgrade versus bank transfer frictions like cut-off times and multi-day value dates.
• Stablecoins continue to deepen their role inside traditional payments and financial infrastructure stacks.

How Decta plans to use USDC

In remarks shared with Cointelegraph, OpenPayd’s chief commercial officer, Lux Thiagarajah, described the integration as “a proprietary treasury use case rather than a customer-facing payments flow.” In other words, the stablecoin is intended for Decta’s own internal movements of value across entities and markets—not for consumer or merchant payments.

Thiagarajah explained that Decta transfers its funds into OpenPayd’s regulated infrastructure, where they are converted into USDC. OpenPayd’s role is to facilitate this conversion through its OTC capabilities, then use the resulting digital settlement instrument to support international operational settlements.

For investors and builders watching crypto adoption, the practical implication is straightforward: stablecoins are being absorbed into workflows where speed and execution certainty matter most. Even when customer-facing adoption lags, stablecoin rails can still become embedded in day-to-day operations for regulated financial intermediaries.

Treasury operations and the limits of banking rails

Decta UK CEO Scott Dawson said the company regularly moves funds between banking relationships to fund operations and settle internal obligations across regulated entities and jurisdictions. Traditionally, these transfers rely on standard banking rails, which can impose operational constraints such as cut-off times, weekends, and multi-day value dates.

Dawson argued that using OpenPayd’s regulated infrastructure changes the timing dynamics. According to his statement to Cointelegraph, Decta converts fiat into a digital settlement instrument through OpenPayd, then “moves it across markets near-instantly.”

This matters because treasury departments generally value predictability and execution efficiency. While banking transfers can be reliable, their scheduling constraints can complicate cash planning and working-capital management—particularly for firms operating across multiple countries and regulated entities.

Dawson also pointed out that Decta transfers its own funds for settlements rather than altering the structure of its customer payment products. That distinction suggests the company is aiming for improved operational settlement performance without expanding the stablecoin exposure embedded in its customer-facing services.

Decta and OpenPayd: where the integration fits

Founded in 2015 in London, Decta describes itself as a payments platform providing payment processing, acquiring, card issuing, banking, and other financial infrastructure to businesses. The company says it operates across 32 countries and serves hundreds of companies, according to its announcement.

On the infrastructure side, OpenPayd—founded in 2018 in London—positions itself as a bridge between fiat and digital assets. Cointelegraph previously reported that OpenPayd secured authorization under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) in June, enabling it to offer crypto services across the European Economic Area, including fiat-to-stablecoin on- and off-ramps. Its listed clients include Kraken, eToro, OKX, and B2C2, as described in that earlier coverage.

Cointelegraph also noted in past reporting that Decta had explored stablecoin issuance. In August 2024, Decta Limited and France-based Next Generation said they were looking at a potential euro-pegged stablecoin that Decta could issue under MiCA, subject to regulatory approval.

Taken together, the new USDC settlement plan fits a broader trajectory for regulated payment businesses: stablecoins can be treated as settlement instruments in specific operational layers, while issuance ambitions or customer-facing products may follow separate regulatory and market readiness paths.

What to watch next

As Decta rolls USDC into its international treasury workflow, market observers should look for whether the arrangement remains strictly proprietary (back-end settlements) or gradually expands into other operational flows. The key unresolved question is how widely similar regulated payment firms will follow—especially given the ongoing need to balance faster settlement with compliance expectations across jurisdictions.

Bitdeer Technologies shed a fifth of its market value on August 10, closing at a market capitalization of $2.11 billion, down 19% from Friday’s $2.65 billion.

The BTC miner had posted a slightly wider quarterly loss than Wall Street expected that morning in its earnings announcement, and more importantly, it filed a shelf registration to dilute shareholders with up to $1 billion in new stock.

The stock’s plunge was idiosyncratic, not mirroring the price of broader markets nor BTC. Indeed, the Nasdaq closed within 0.4% of its Friday close, and BTC traded within 2%. 

Bitdeer investors were reacting to the company’s particular disclosures, not the broader market.

Bitdeer reported second quarter revenue rising 47% versus Q2 2025 to $228.8 million, beating analysts’ consensus estimate of $225.7 million.

Its per-share earnings loss of $0.37 per share missed analysts’ $0.36 model, a forgivable single cent miss.

Behind those numbers, however, the company’s margins swung in the wrong direction. Gross margin turned negative for the quarter against a positive quarterly margin the prior year.

Analysts at Alliance Global weren’t impressed. They cut Bitdeer’s price target to $20 per share, reversing a raise to $23 they had made just days earlier on pre-earnings optimism.

CFO Michael Potter tried to frame Bitdeer’s quarter positively. He joined from Corsair Gaming this year, replacing outgoing finance chief Jianchun Liu.

“The second quarter reflected steady progress across our platform,” he said in the earnings release before his stock cratered by 19% in one day.

Steady progress is one way to describe a quarter where costs outran revenue.

He also cited a new colocation agreement and the AI Cloud business as evidence of an “integrated vertical stack” that failed to immediately impress investors.

Nasdaq-listed chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA), the bellwether for everything AI, is pushing Wall Street banks to treat its AI computing power like commercial real estate, toll roads or power plants: as an investable infrastructure asset.

Nvidia said Monday it has signed memorandums of understanding with six Wall Street heavyweights – Apollo Global Management, Blackstone, BlackRock, Brookfield Asset Management, Goldman Sachs and KKR – to set up financing platforms that could eventually tap more than $500 billion in third‑party capital.

The goal, according to the chipmaker, is to treat AI compute as a bankable infrastructure asset rather than a pure tech expense, encouraging customers to build out AI data centres and lock in demand for Nvidia’s hardware.

“This is really the first time that technology chips have become an investable asset class. These are revenue-generating assets now. They’re productive, they’re long-lived, they’re fungible, they’re flexible,” Jensen Huang, NVIDIA’s founder and CEO, said.

“Fundamentally, what’s different about this industry and this way of doing computing is that the computer is now part of the infrastructure, like electricity, like the internet, and so you have to think about it like it’s infrastructure,” he added.

What’s AI compute

AI compute refers to the raw processing power used to train and run artificial intelligence models. Specialized chips, mostly Nvidia’s high-end GPUs, primarily do that work and make up the large data centers that Nvidia calls “AI factories.”