"Crypto exchange" is the loosest word in the industry. MiCA makes it precise — and the register shows how few firms actually qualify. Of 324 authorised crypto-asset service providers in the EU, just 20 hold the licence to operate a trading platform. Several of the biggest consumer brands, Coinbase and Crypto.com among them, are not on that list.
Published: August 2026 · Data as of 12 August 2026 · Reading time: ~6 minutes
Key Takeaways
- Operating a trading platform is the rarest of MiCA's ten services: only 20 of 324 authorised CASPs (6%) hold it.
- MiCA draws a hard line most marketing blurs: a trading platform is a matching venue (an order book where clients trade with each other); an exchange for funds is a broker (the firm is your counterparty). They are different licences.
- The 20 platform operators are the EU's genuine venues — OKX, Kraken, Bitstamp, Bitvavo, Gate, One Trading and a dozen smaller names.
- Coinbase, Crypto.com, Gemini and Bybit are authorised CASPs but do not hold the trading-platform licence — in the register they operate under other services, the broker model.
- By contrast, exchange for funds — the broker service — is held by 166 firms (51%). Most "exchanges" you can name are, under MiCA, brokers.
The rarest licence on the register
MiCA authorises ten distinct crypto-asset services, and a CASP is licensed for some subset of them. Rank the 324 authorised firms by how many hold each service and one line sits far below the rest:
| MiCA service | Firms | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Custody & administration | 201 | 62% |
| Transfer services | 192 | 59% |
| Exchange for funds | 166 | 51% |
| Execution of orders | 155 | 48% |
| Exchange for other crypto-assets | 136 | 42% |
| Reception & transmission | 79 | 24% |
| Portfolio management | 46 | 14% |
| Advice | 35 | 11% |
| Placing | 34 | 10% |
| Operation of a trading platform | 20 | 6% |
Operating a trading platform is the licence almost nobody has. That is not an accident of who applied — it reflects what the licence actually permits, and how few firms run that kind of business.
Venue versus broker: the line MiCA draws
In everyday use, "exchange" covers everything from Coinbase's buy button to a professional order book. MiCA separates the two, and the distinction is about who your counterparty is.
Operation of a trading platform is defined as managing a multilateral system that brings together multiple third parties' buying and selling interests in a way that results in a contract. In plain terms: an order book. Clients trade against each other; the operator only runs the venue and matches the orders.
Exchange of crypto-assets for funds is defined as concluding purchase or sale contracts with clients using the firm's own capital. Here the firm is your counterparty — it sells you the bitcoin from its own book and takes the other side of your trade. That is a broker-dealer, not a venue.
These are separate authorisations for a reason: running a matching venue carries obligations a broker does not have — market-abuse surveillance, transparent order handling, listing rules, systems resilience. It is the heavier licence, and the register shows firms take it only when their business genuinely needs it.
Who actually holds it
The 20 firms licensed to operate a trading platform are the EU's real venues:
| Country | Firms |
|---|---|
| Malta | OKX, ZBX, Gate |
| Netherlands | Bitvavo, One Trading, Zerohash Europe |
| Ireland | Kraken, Webot |
| Liechtenstein | RULEMATCH, SMART VALOR |
| Czechia | COINMATE, MP Developers |
| Norway | FIRI, NBX |
| Germany | flatexDEGIRO Bank, Baden-Württembergische Wertpapierbörse |
| France · Cyprus · Luxembourg · Latvia | PAYMIUM · PM MTF · Bitstamp · AlphaRoute |
Two details stand out. The list is not crypto-natives only: flatexDEGIRO Bank and the Baden-Württembergische Wertpapierbörse — a traditional German stock exchange — are among the operators, extending regulated market infrastructure into crypto. And the venues are spread thin: no single country hosts more than three.
The names that aren't there
Here is the counterintuitive part. Filter the register for the household-name exchanges and check which hold the platform licence:
| Firm | Home | Trading-platform licence? |
|---|---|---|
| Kraken | Ireland | Yes |
| OKX | Malta | Yes |
| Bitstamp | Luxembourg | Yes |
| Bitvavo | Netherlands | Yes |
| Coinbase | Luxembourg | No |
| Crypto.com | Malta | No |
| Gemini | Malta | No |
| Bybit | Austria | No |
Coinbase, Crypto.com, Gemini and Bybit are all authorised CASPs — but in the register they are not licensed to operate a trading platform. They hold other services: custody, exchange for funds, execution. In MiCA terms, their EU consumer offering is structured as a broker, not a venue: when a retail user taps "buy", the firm sells from its own book rather than matching them against another customer on an order book.
That is a legitimate and common model — 166 firms hold the exchange-for-funds licence, against 20 for trading platforms. But it means the word "exchange" on a landing page tells you very little about the licence underneath. Most consumer "crypto exchanges" operating in the EU are, precisely, not exchanges.
Why it matters
For anyone reading the register — compliance teams, journalists, competitors — the lesson is to stop treating "CASP" as one thing. The licence mix is the business model:
- A firm with operation of a trading platform runs a venue and carries market-integrity obligations.
- A firm with exchange for funds but not the platform licence is a broker taking the other side of your trade.
- Many large brands are the second kind, however they market themselves.
It also reframes competition. The EU has more than 300 licensed crypto firms but only 20 licensed order-book venues — a far more concentrated market for actual trading infrastructure than the headline count suggests. (For the full service and passporting picture, see our analysis of what 294 CASP licences reveal.)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many MiCA firms can operate a crypto trading platform? 20 of the 324 authorised CASPs as of 12 August 2026 — about 6%. It is the rarest of MiCA's ten crypto-asset services.
What is the difference between a trading platform and an exchange under MiCA? A trading platform operates a multilateral order book where clients trade with each other; the operator only provides the venue. "Exchange of crypto-assets for funds" is a broker service where the firm is your counterparty, trading against you with its own capital. They are separate MiCA authorisations.
Does Coinbase have a MiCA trading-platform licence? Per the register, Coinbase's authorised EU entity does not hold "operation of a trading platform". It is an authorised CASP under other services, the broker model. The same is true of Crypto.com, Gemini and Bybit.
Which MiCA service is most common? Custody and administration, held by 201 firms (62%), followed by transfer services (59%) and exchange for funds (51%).
Sources
- MICA Watch snapshot of the ESMA CASP register, data as of 12 August 2026. Browse the CASP register or the full entity list.
- Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCA), Annex I — list of crypto-asset services, and Article 3 definitions of "operation of a trading platform" and "exchange of crypto-assets for funds". Context: MiCA regulators and the EU framework.
- Service classification from the register's own `serviceCode` field; firm identification by Legal Entity Identifier.