WhiteBIT wins Austria MiCA license, to launch whitebit.eu

WhiteBIT has received authorization from Austria’s Financial Market Authority to operate under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation. The approval allows the exchange to offer regulated crypto services across the European Economic Area and supports the launch of a dedicated European platform, whitebit.eu.

Under MiCA, firms authorized in one EU member state can passport services across the EEA on a single license. WhiteBIT’s parent, W Group, reports it serves more than 35 million customers globally. The exchange, founded in 2018, has commercial partnerships with Visa, FACEIT, FC Barcelona, Juventus and Ukraine’s national football team.

The authorization arrives fewer than two weeks before the MiCA transition period ends on July 1. After that date, crypto firms operating under legacy national registrations must either hold a MiCA licence or stop serving clients in the bloc. Regulators have increased scrutiny of pending applications as the deadline nears.

Austria chose not to extend grandfathering provisions for virtual asset service providers beyond Dec. 31, 2025, making it one of the first EU jurisdictions to fully implement the MiCA framework. Austria’s Financial Market Authority has licensed nine crypto-asset service providers and described application volume as “significant.”

The European Securities and Markets Authority has advised that firms still unauthorized after July 1 should put in place wind-down and client migration plans rather than continue operating while applications are under review.

Industry data from OKX Europe show that about 7.6 million of 18.5 million crypto app downloads recorded in Europe between May 2025 and May 2026 were linked to exchanges not listed on public MiCA authorization registers, indicating a number of platforms may not yet hold formal approval.

In a statement, WhiteBIT wrote, “the authorization will support the launch of a dedicated European platform, whitebit.eu.” The company has positioned the new platform to serve customers in the EEA under the single-license regime created by MiCA.