MiCA in Austria

The MiCA-VVG designates the FMA as competent authority for MiCA in Austria, and the National Council passed it on 3 July 2024. The FMA decides on applications for authorization under Article 63 and receives the notifications of Austrian banks and investment firms under Article 60. In its guidance for crypto-asset service providers, the FMA expects people and decision-making in Austria, not a registered address only.

Austria reported a transitional period of twelve months under Article 143(3), as the ESMA list of grandfathering periods shows. Providers registered under the Austrian anti-money laundering law could keep serving clients until the end of 2025 while the FMA reviewed their applications. Germany chose the same twelve months, while France and Luxembourg allowed eighteen.

Ireland, Lithuania, Slovakia and Norway also chose twelve months for their MiCA transitional period.

The ESMA interim register of 18 October 2026 lists 12 crypto-asset service providers with Austria as home member state, all with an Article 63 authorization. Bitpanda received its authorization on 9 April 2025 for custody, exchange, order execution, placing and transfers, and it passports these services into 30 countries. Bybit EU followed on 28 May 2025, and KuCoin EU on 27 November 2025.

AMINA (Austria) gives the Swiss AMINA group an EU entity for custody, exchange, portfolio management and transfers. Coinfinity in Graz, 21bitcoin and DADAT Krypto are Austrian firms in the register, and BingX EU is the most recent entry, authorized on 13 October 2026.

Finance Loop connects compliance and digital asset teams in Germany with the Austrian providers that serve German clients on their FMA authorization. Bybit EU, authorized by the FMA in Vienna, hosted the Bybit EU Crypto Evening in Frankfurt, where Mykolas Majauskas, Senior Director of Policy, spoke about compliance under MiCAR. Bybit EU later held a roadshow with Circle in Frankfurt on the evening before the Crypto Assets Conference. Finance Loop also lists the MiCAR certificate program that EBS Executive School runs with the law firm HEUKING.

A firm applies to the FMA for authorization under Article 63 and has to show its governance, own funds, custody arrangements and controls against money laundering. The FMA expects a real presence in Austria, with management and staff in the country. The requirements for a CASP license are the same in every member state.

The FMA explains the classification of crypto-assets, the obligations of issuers and providers, and the dates on which the parts of MiCA apply. Rules for asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens apply from 30 June 2024, and the rules for crypto-asset service providers from 30 December 2024.

Bybit EU, KuCoin EU, WhiteBIT EU and BingX EU run their European business from Vienna on an FMA authorization. Each of them may passport its services into at least 28 countries of the EU and EEA, Germany among them.

MiCA applies directly in Austria, and the MiCA-VVG adds what the regulation leaves to the member states, above all the powers of the FMA and the penalties. Before MiCA, Austrian crypto firms registered with the FMA under the anti-money laundering act, a registration that gave no EU passport.

A provider with an Austrian authorization notifies the FMA of the countries where it wants to serve clients, and the FMA passes the notice on to their supervisors. This is how Bitpanda and Bybit EU serve German clients without a separate license from BaFin.