MiCA Fraud: 1,700 Unlicensed Firms Leave Customers Exposed

Scammers are working the EU's MiCA licensing shakeout from the inside, impersonating regulators and crypto firms to pull assets from customers who lost their provider on July 1. That was the hard deadline under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, Europe's licensing regime for digital-asset firms. Companies without a valid license had to stop serving EU customers or transfer those operations. The messy exit process left a large pool of users unsure where to turn, and criminals have moved into it.

The numbers outline the scale. By the end of July, the European Securities and Markets Authority counted 323 crypto firms with MiCA licenses. VASPnet, a public registry, put the number of companies that must stop operating at more than 1,700. Hundreds of thousands of customers, perhaps more, fall between those two lists. They are actively searching for a new platform, and ESMA has warned that fraudsters are misusing its identity and logo, circulating falsified documents that appear official.

Stéphane Pontoizeau of the AMF, France's markets regulator, said scammers have been impersonating AMF representatives directly, pushing users to move their assets through deceptive websites. Pontoizeau described the approach as targeted social engineering aimed at people already anxious about their funds. A customer who just learned their exchange is leaving the EU wants their money safe. That anxiety is the opening the scammers are working, he said.