Coinbase chooses Ireland as its EU MiCA hub

• Under MiCA, Coinbase could provide its services across the 27 EU members with one national supervisor. 
• MiCA is scheduled to come into force at the end of 2024.

One of the world’s leading crypto exchanges, Coinbase [COIN], announced its expansion plans in the European Union (EU) via its blog post on 18 October.

The U.S.-based crypto exchange said it has chosen Ireland as its EU Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) hub. It means that it would apply for the MiCA license in Ireland itself.

Once approved, the exchange could provide its services to 450 million customers spread across the 27 EU member countries under,

“One regulatory framework and with one national supervisor.”

Coinbase already holds e-money institution and virtual asset service provider (VASP) licenses in Ireland. It has secured VASP registrations in Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and Spain, over the past year. Outside of Europe, it secured a license in Malaysia recently.

However, the exchange is battling the charges of securities violations in the U.S. The Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) sued it in June. Notably, the regulator had listed a number of cryptocurrencies as securities at the time.

Meanwhile, Coinbase has also been pushing the SEC to respond to its crypto rule-making petition.

Quick, calculated move ahead of MiCA

The latest press statement also conveyed,

“Ireland is a leading jurisdiction in this space, and we look forward to working with regulators in Ireland, Germany and other key EU member states, to bring this industry to its full potential with the advent of MiCA.”

MiCA is scheduled to come into force at the end of 2024. As per the guidelines, the member states can allow already active crypto service providers to continue providing those services during the transitional period of 18 months.

It means VASPs can keep providing their services until 1 July 2026, given the national regulators allow them.

Coinbase’s action in this regard is a quick and calculated move to win approval in a European nation. This way, it can keep providing its services across the entire EU jurisdiction without hassle as MiCA gets implemented.