MiCA spurs crypto exchanges to France, Ireland

The EU’s MiCA compliance requirements have led several major crypto exchanges to consolidate European operations in France and Ireland, according to a report from Certik. The report says regulators across Europe, the Middle East and Africa have shifted from writing rules to active enforcement. EMEA fines totaled $168.2 million in the first half of 2025, a 767% increase from the same period a year earlier.

The report lists enforcement actions by national supervisors, led by the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority, as a major driver of that rise in penalties. The FCA imposed penalties including £44 million on Nationwide Building Society, £39.3 million on Barclays and £21.1 million on Monzo for anti‑money‑laundering deficiencies. The Central Bank of Ireland fined Coinbase Europe €21 million for breaches of AML and counter‑terrorist financing rules. Certik also notes that the EU anti‑money‑laundering authority, AMLA, has begun operations, which the report says will extend oversight across member states.

Regulators are focusing on operational controls. Supervisors are carrying out on‑site audits and technical reviews of automated transaction‑monitoring systems, trading and custody platforms, and proof‑of‑reserves practices. The report says joint investigations and real‑time data sharing between agencies have increased in 2025 to help trace suspicious flows across borders, concluding:

The ‘wait and see’ era of digital asset regulation has ended.

Stablecoin rules are a major part of current regulatory work. The report describes a trend to treat stablecoin reserves similarly to money market funds to limit contagion risk. It says new stablecoin laws expected in 2026 will reflect those standards. The report points to Singapore and Japan as examples of jurisdictions with advanced stablecoin and institutional crypto rules. Hong Kong has introduced a licensing regime aimed at retail trading platforms, while mainland China continues to prohibit most crypto activities.

In the United States, the report characterizes enforcement as driven by agency actions rather than a single federal law. It highlights ongoing jurisdictional disputes between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and notes that recent court rulings have clarified certain asset classifications. The report states that the absence of a unified federal statute has influenced some Web3 firms to move to jurisdictions with clearer rules, and that proposed U.S. stablecoin legislation could change that dynamic.

The report identifies centralized on‑ramps and intermediaries-website front ends, bridges and custodians-as primary enforcement targets because they connect retail users to blockchains. Decentralized finance protocols remain harder for supervisors to address directly. The report also records wider adoption of the Travel Rule and growing expectations for proof of reserves, which create technical compliance challenges for firms operating with smart contracts or decentralised architectures.