OpenPayd Secures MiCA Licence as Stablecoins Gain Traction Across Europe

OpenPayd, a financial infrastructure company, announced Wednesday that it received authorisation from the European Union's (EU) Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). With this authorization, the firm is able to provide crypto services within the European Economic Area (EEA) through passporting. This license allows OpenPayd to be a crypto asset service provider (CASP) in order to provide services like fiat-on-ramp/off-ramp to stablecoins. This license has been issued by the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA). Moreover, the regulator has also granted MiCA licenses to crypto companies, including OKX and Gemini.

Approval Comes as Firms Race to Meet MiCA Requirements

This approval comes days ahead of the July 1 deadline imposed by the bloc's MiCA transitional deadline as crypto firms rush to receive their authorisations under MiCA regulations. The authorisation received by OpenPayd has been received less than a year since the company started its stablecoin infrastructure service, which facilitates managing both traditional currency and digital currency from one platform. OpenPayd handles transactions worth more than $240 billion (roughly Rs. 22,65,120 crore) annually for more than 1,100 companies around the world, such as Kraken, eToro, OKX, and B2C2.

OpenPayd was established in London in 2018 by Ozan Ozerk, who is a fintech entrepreneur having also founded the digital bank based in Lithuania called European Merchant Bank. OpenPayd's MiCA license is happening as the firm prepares for a public listing in the US. The deal will see OpenPayd valued at about $1.1 billion (roughly Rs. 10,382 crore) and will be finalised in Q4 2026.

As the deadline for MiCA is nearing, other crypto exchanges have also managed to secure their respective MiCA licences. One of the exchanges is the Lithuania-based crypto exchange, WhiteBIT, which has secured MiCA from the Austrian Financial Market Authority. Therefore, WhiteBIT is permitted to provide crypto services across the entire EEA with a single permit. As per WhiteBIT, the license will facilitate the roll-out of a specific platform in Europe, which is whitebit.eu. 

Another crypto exchange, Paybis, has also acquired two licences, including MiCA and another for payment institution operations under the Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2). The licences were issued to SIA Paybis Europe, which is the company's EU entity. This regulatory achievement has established Paybis as a fully regulated, dual-licensed crypto services provider operating across 27 members of the EU and the broader EEA. The licences were issued by the Supervision Committee of Latvijas Banka, which is the central bank of Latvia.