Spain to implement MiCA six months ahead of July 2026 deadline

The Spanish Ministry of Economy and Digital Transformation reported that the first comprehensive European Union crypto framework, the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) Act, will come into force on a national level in December 2025.

As follows from the release published by the Ministry on Oct. 26, the first vice president of Spain, Nadia Calviño, has met with the president of the European Securities and Market Authority, Verena Ross, to discuss the government’s intention to advance the implementation of MiCA.

The general deadline for implementing MiCA for all 27 member states of the EU is July 2026. It includes the 36-month transitional period given to the member states since the date of the publication of the MiCA in the Official Journal of the European Union in June 2023. Spain wants to shorten that transition period to 18 months. According to the release:

[This] will provide legal certainty and greater protection for Spanish investors in this type of assets.

Meanwhile, large international crypto exchanges in Spain have been granted local licenses. In September, Coinbase secured an Anti-Money Laundering compliance registration from Spain’s central bank, and Kraken attained a virtual asset service provider registration. Earlier, in June, the same regulatory approval was granted to Crypto.com.

This month, Banco de España, Spain’s central bank, publicly joined a chorus of European banking institutions preparing their customers for the potential benefits of a digital euro. The bank claimed that the physical cash format “does not allow to exploit all the advantages offered by the growing digitalization of the economy and society.”