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Crypto Law/Level VIII · Around the world/8.2 Europe/Lesson 1

MiCA across the member states

MiCA is one rulebook, but 27 governments still choose the supervisor, the transition, the penalties and the tax, and those choices decide what a crypto business or holder actually faces in each country.

Education, not legal, tax or investment advice. Crypto law differs between countries and states and changes often. Check the current rules where you live with a qualified lawyer or tax adviser before you act.

The lean path

The cheapest, lowest-tax, simplest and most private route the law allows, best first. Each step names the rule it rests on and the condition that keeps it lawful.

  1. Portugal: gains on crypto held 365 days or more are excluded from income tax (CIRS article 10, paragraph 22), and crypto-for-crypto swaps are not taxed. Catch: shorter holdings are taxed at 28%, and ceasing Portuguese residence counts as a disposal.
  2. Germany: a private sale of crypto held more than one year is outside income tax entirely (section 23 EStG), and staking does not extend that period. Catch: you must prove acquisition dates wallet by wallet under the Finance Ministry’s March 2025 letter.
  3. France: crypto-to-crypto swaps without cash are deferred, and a year with total disposal proceeds of EUR 305 or less is exempt. Catch: once you sell for euros, the whole-portfolio formula applies to the gain.
  4. Buying, selling or exchanging bitcoin carries no VAT anywhere in the EU after the Court of Justice’s Hedqvist judgment (C-264/14, 22 October 2015). Catch: MiCA leaves income tax national; Italy taxes gains at 33% from 2026 without the former EUR 2,000 exemption.
  5. Use a provider authorised under MiCA, checked free on ESMA’s register; since 1 July 2026 every grandfathering period has ended. Catch: authorisation does not reduce reporting, because DAC8 makes every EU provider report your yearly totals from 2026.

MaterialsRegulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCA), Articles 93, 111 and 143, on EUR-LexESMA’s list of grandfathering periods under Article 143(3) and its list of national competent authoritiesThe ESMA Interim MiCA Register, to check which legal entity holds which authorisationLessons 3.3.1, 3.3.2 and 3.3.7, which explain the EU rules this lesson builds on

Wonder

  1. If MiCA applies directly everywhere, why does it still matter which EU country a crypto firm picks?
  2. What happens in a member state that never passes its MiCA implementing law?
  3. Does MiCA change how my crypto gains are taxed in my own country?

Explore

  1. Regulation (EU) 2023/1114, known as MiCA, applies directly in every member state (lesson 3.3.1), but it leaves important pieces to national law. Each state must designate competent authorities under Article 93, set penalties within the floors of Article 111, give its supervisor investigative powers, and decide how long existing firms could keep operating under older national rules. Germany did this through the Kryptomärkteaufsichtsgesetz (KMAG), enacted as Article 2 of the Finanzmarktdigitalisierungsgesetz and in force from 30 December 2024, naming BaFin. France relies on the AMF and Spain on the CNMV. The same regulation therefore reaches the market through 27 different supervisors, procedures and fee schedules.
  2. The transition is the clearest divergence. Article 143(3) let firms already operating lawfully before 30 December 2024 continue until 1 July 2026 at the latest, but allowed each state to shorten or skip that period. ESMA’s published list shows the result: 18 months in France, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta and others; 12 months in Germany, Ireland, Austria and Lithuania; nine in Sweden; and six in the Netherlands, Hungary, Poland, Latvia, Slovenia and Finland. Some states also set application cut-offs, such as 30 December 2025 for firms on Italy’s register. A firm serving several countries had to track several deadlines, and customers in the Netherlands lost unlicensed providers a year earlier than customers in France.
  3. National add-ons can collide with the regulation. On 30 January 2026 the European Commission sent Hungary a letter of formal notice (INFR(2025)2174) over Act LXVII of 2025, which amended Hungary’s Crypto Act to create a new authorisation regime for ‘exchange validation services’ backed by criminal liability. The Commission said MiCA does not provide for such a regime. Poland shows the opposite problem. Its implementing act, which would make the KNF the supervisor, was vetoed by President Nawrocki for the third time in June 2026, and in early September 2026 the Sejm fell 25 votes short of overriding the veto.
  4. The Polish gap has practical effects. In July 2026 the KNF told CoinDesk that, because the implementing law had not entered into force, no Polish authority had been designated to supervise MiCA activities except issuers of e-money tokens. With roughly 2,000 firms on Poland’s old virtual-asset register and the EU-wide transition over on 1 July 2026, Polish firms could only obtain a MiCA licence in another member state and passport back (lesson 3.3.7). Supervisory quality is also contested: in September 2025 AMF chair Marie-Anne Barbat-Layani told Reuters that France did not exclude refusing the EU passport, after ESMA’s July 2025 peer review criticised one Maltese authorisation.
  5. Centralisation is now on the table. On 4 December 2025 the Commission’s market integration and supervision package proposed transferring direct supervision of all crypto-asset service providers to ESMA. On 9 October 2026 EU finance ministers agreed key elements of the Council’s position, under which only the most significant providers would move to ESMA supervision. As of October 2026 it remains a proposal: the Parliament has yet to adopt its position before trilogues. Tax is a separate matter altogether. MiCA does not touch direct tax, and the only EU-wide crypto tax rule of note is the Court of Justice’s Hedqvist judgment (C-264/14, 22 October 2015), which exempted bitcoin-for-currency exchange services from VAT.
  6. Income tax on crypto gains remains purely national, which is why the following lessons go country by country. Germany exempts private gains after a one-year holding period (lesson 8.2.3); France applies a flat 31.4% (lesson 8.2.4); Spain taxes gains in its savings bands (lesson 8.2.5); and Italy’s Law 207/2024 raised its substitute tax on crypto gains from 26% to 33% for gains realised from 2026 and removed the EUR 2,000 exemption. Reporting is being harmonised through DAC8 (lesson 8.2.2). A practical check: for each provider you use, note the legal entity, its home supervisor and the national tax rules where you are resident,.

Key facts

  • MiCA leaves member states to designate competent authorities, set penalties and choose the length of the Article 143(3) transitional period.
  • ESMA’s list shows MiCA grandfathering periods ranging from 18 months in France, Spain and Italy to six months in the Netherlands, Poland and Finland.
  • On 30 January 2026 the Commission sent Hungary a letter of formal notice over a national authorisation regime for ‘exchange validation services’ that MiCA does not provide for.
  • Poland’s MiCA implementing act was vetoed three times, and a Sejm override vote in early September 2026 fell 25 votes short.
  • On 4 December 2025 the Commission proposed moving supervision of all CASPs to ESMA; on 9 October 2026 the Council backed ESMA supervision only for the most significant ones.
  • Italy’s Law 207/2024 raised the substitute tax on crypto gains from 26% to 33% for gains realised from 2026.

Exercise nine, six, three, one

9CollectList up to 9 facts about where you or a firm you know deals in crypto in the EU: home state, supervisor, legal entity, licence date, tax residence and anything still pending.
6ClusterSort them into 6 groups: supervisor, transition and licence status, national add-on rules, passporting, tax, and open political questions.
3DistillReduce the 6 to 3: the national choices that actually change your position compared with someone in another member state.
1CrystallizeWrite 1 sentence stating which national rule, not MiCA itself, matters most for your situation and why.

Fact check

Dates, figures and claims checked against the published sources listed below.

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