Europe Had 3,167 Crypto Firms. After July 1, Just 244 Are Legal.

July 2, 2026 On July 1, the transitional window under the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) closed for good, with no extension. When it did, just 244 firms held a full crypto-asset service provider (CASP) licence, down from more than 3,167 entities that operated across Europe under national registrations before MiCA. Measured against that base, roughly 92% of the market did not survive the transition; even against a narrower count of about 1,200 formally registered firms, four in five did not convert.

A new analysis from independent research publication Stack and Story, Survival of the Licensed, maps who cleared the bar, who did not, and what the cull means for the future of European crypto. The full piece, with data visualisations, is available at stackandstory.com.

Key findings

• A market cut to a fraction. 244 authorised CASPs remain across 25 jurisdictions, alongside 20 licensed e-money-token (stablecoin) issuers and zero authorised asset-referenced-token issuers. Not a single multi-asset stablecoin cleared MiCA's bar.
• Germany won the reset. With 57 licences (about 23% of the entire bloc) and top passporting-hub status, Germany now hosts more than double second-placed France and the Netherlands, which sit level at 26 each.
• Five member states issued none. Greece, Hungary, Poland, Portugal and Romania granted zero authorisations. Poland, historically a popular hub, could not license anyone at all, after its domestic implementing law was repeatedly vetoed by the president.
• The biggest names are out. Binance withdrew its licence application days before the deadline and has restricted EU services. Tether never applied, and licensed exchanges have delisted its USDT, cutting Europe's regulated venues off from roughly $185 billion of the world's most-traded stablecoin. Circle (USDC and EURC) is the only top-ten stablecoin issuer that qualified.
• A last-minute scramble. More than a third of all licences were granted in the final ten weeks, as the count jumped from 177 in late April to 244 by July 2.
• Concentration by design. Only 14 firms across the EU were authorised to operate a full order-book trading platform, meaning the venues where crypto prices are formed now run through a very small number of licensed hands.

The analysis draws on ESMA statements and interim-register data, register mirrors (CASPTracker, Helms Advisory), Coincub's pre-MiCA registration counts, and a Finray classification of successful authorisations. Stack and Story notes that “survival rate” is not an official metric and presents both the 7.7% (widest base) and roughly 20% (narrow base) framings; the 244 figure is a post-deadline register read.

Read the full analysis: stackandstory.com/stories/survival-of-the-licensed