TL;DR
- France’s AMF flagged 90 registered crypto firms still without MiCA authorization; the transition ends June 30 and firms may have to cease operations by July.
- Of those firms, 40% said they will not apply, 30% said applications are in progress, and 30% have not responded to the regulator’s query.
- ESMA expects orderly wind-down plans, and the European Commission proposed giving ESMA centralized supervision, a shift France supports as Malta opposes.
France’s financial regulator has flagged 90 crypto firms registered in the country that still lack authorization under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets rulebook ahead of a late June cutoff. The Autorité des Marchés Financiers says the transition period ends June 30, and firms that fail to align may be forced to stop operating by July. The regulator’s director Stephane Pontoizeau said 40% are still not seeking a license and about 30% have not responded to the authority’s outreach. The immediate message is that MiCA compliance is shifting from planning to execution, with deadlines now driving decisions. Companies and traders are already seeing negative impacts on their financial freedom, which could cause major problems for the ecosystem in Europe in general, and France in particular.
What the licensing gap signals for firms and supervisors
The breakdown is stark: of the 90 firms, 40% have indicated they do not intend to apply for MiCA authorization, while another 30% told the AMF their applications are in progress, for investors and counterparties alike. The remaining 30% are the awkward cohort, firms that have not replied to the regulator’s query on their plans. The compliance risk is not theoretical, because silence can translate into forced wind-down decisions once the transition window closes. The AMF did not name the companies on either side of the decision, and it had not provided comment at publication.
France is not starting from zero. Since MiCA came fully into force in late 2024, the AMF has issued licenses to a handful of crypto companies operating under the new regime. Examples cited include CoinShares, a crypto investment firm licensed in July 2025, and Relai, a Switzerland-based Bitcoin app that received a MiCA license from the AMF in October. These approvals show the pathway exists, but the size of the unlicensed cohort highlights the scale of the implementation gap. That gap, in turn, feeds broader concerns about how consistently MiCA will be enforced across Europe.
Europe’s supervisors are signaling they want clean exits, not last-minute chaos. ESMA said in December it expects crypto firms without MiCA authorization to have orderly wind-down plans in place once the transitional period ends. Also in December, the European Commission proposed giving ESMA a centralized supervisory role over all EU crypto companies, a move some critics say could slow licensing and hinder startup growth. Member states, including Malta, have opposed the centralization proposal as the deadline nears.
