Crypto.com
Crypto.com is a crypto platform founded in 2016 whose app lets customers buy, sell and store crypto-assets, and which also runs an exchange for active traders and a card program. The company reports more than 100 million customers worldwide and serves them through regional entities that hold licenses in their markets.
For the European Economic Area the company works through Foris DAX MT Limited in Malta. The Malta Financial Services Authority MFSA authorized this entity on 27 January 2025 as a crypto-asset service provider under MiCA, four weeks after the MiCA rules for such providers took effect on 30 December 2024.
Authorization by the MFSA
The MFSA authorized Foris DAX MT Limited on 27 January 2025 under the MiCA regulation, and as a condition the entity gave up its Maltese license as a virtual financial assets service provider. The authorization covers custody, the exchange of crypto-assets for funds and for other crypto-assets, the reception, transmission and execution of orders and transfer services.
On 12 February 2025 Foris DAX MT passported its services across the European Economic Area. The interim MiCA register of ESMA lists 29 countries besides Malta, which covers every other EU member state and Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
What the authorization does not cover
The MiCA authorization applies to the crypto services of Foris DAX MT Limited. The cash account and the Visa card come from a different company, Foris MT Limited, and the notice of Crypto.com states that the MiCA authorization does not cover them.
The register also lists no operation of a trading platform, no advice and no portfolio management for the Maltese entity. Each of these services needs its own entry under the CASP license rules, so the six services in the register mark the scope of the European business.
Malta as the home country
Malta regulated crypto platforms before MiCA under its own Virtual Financial Assets Act, and several exchanges kept their European entities on the island when MiCA replaced that law. The MFSA supervises Foris DAX MT for every EEA country it serves, and the national supervisors of those countries receive notifications through the passport procedure.
The crypto sector in Malta still carries the history of that earlier licensing law. Under MiCA the MFSA applies the same rules as every other national authority, and ESMA reviews how the national supervisors handle authorizations.
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Exchange and app
The Crypto.com app is the main product for retail customers, who buy and sell crypto-assets and hold them in custody with the company. The Crypto.com Exchange is a separate trading venue for active traders with an order book and an interface for automated trading.
Crypto.com in Germany
Customers in Germany use Crypto.com under the passport of the Maltese entity, so the platform needs no separate German license. The BaFin receives the passport notification, while the MFSA keeps the supervision of the services.
Visa card and cash account
The Crypto.com Visa card and the cash account belong to Foris MT Limited, a company separate from the MiCA entity. Questions about card limits, fees or payment protection therefore fall outside the MiCA authorization and under the license of Foris MT Limited.
Office in Malta
Foris DAX MT Limited has its registered office on Level 7 of Spinola Park in St. Julians, Malta, under company number C 88392. The register entry of ESMA gives the same address and the website crypto.com as the official domain of the entity.
Taxes for customers in Germany
A MiCA authorization does not change how customers pay tax on their crypto gains, because tax law stays national in every EEA country. German customers follow the rules of crypto tax in Germany, including the one-year holding period for private sales.
Crypto.com and Finance Loop
Finance Loop covers crypto platforms such as Crypto.com in the Investment & Digital Assets track and crypto cards in the track Payments & Digital Money. Finance Loop brings people from banks, payment firms and crypto platforms together at its crypto events in Frankfurt and in other European cities.
Finance Loop is a professional network and has the goal of driving the institutional use of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, tokenization, stablecoins, and DeFi. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.