What MiCA is
The Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2023/1114, is the first EU-wide rulebook for crypto. Its rules for stablecoins have applied since 30 June 2024 and its rules for crypto-asset service providers, meaning exchanges, brokers, custodians and wallet providers, since 30 December 2024. Firms that were already operating had a transition period that ended by 1 July 2026 at the latest. Today, any firm selling crypto services to EU customers must hold a MiCA authorisation from a national regulator and appears in the register kept by ESMA.
MiCA covers the service provider, not the asset. Bitcoin is not authorised or guaranteed by anyone. Decentralised protocols with no identifiable operator and most NFTs fall outside the regulation.
Exchanges, brokers and wallets
An exchange matches buyers and sellers and usually holds your coins in custody. A broker sells you crypto at its own price, often inside a banking or investing app. A self-custody wallet puts the keys, and the responsibility, in your hands. Under MiCA a custodian must keep client assets separate from its own and is liable if it loses them through its own fault, which is a real improvement on the pre-2024 situation. It still does not make the custodian a bank.
How exchanges charge
Prices are rarely a single number. There is the spread between buy and sell price, a trading fee that often differs for makers and takers, deposit and withdrawal fees in euro, a network fee when you move coins to your own wallet, and a cut on staking rewards. A platform that advertises zero commission usually earns it in the spread. Compare the all-in cost of one round trip, buying and selling €1,000, rather than any single fee.
