Crypto Broker License 2026 — OTC Desk and Brokerage Under MiCA

What a crypto broker license under MiCA actually is

Founders ask for “a crypto broker licence” the way they’d ask for a driving licence — one document, one category. MiCA doesn’t work like that. The regulation licenses crypto-asset services, and a brokerage is a bundle of them. There is no “broker” box to tick.

So the real question is which services your business performs. An agency broker that routes or executes client orders is doing reception and transmission, execution, and maybe placing. A principal OTC desk that quotes a price and trades against the client from its own book is doing the exchange service. Those map to different CASP classes, different capital floors, and different conduct duties.

Get the mapping right and the rest follows. Get it wrong and you either over-build — paying for capital and obligations you don’t need — or under-license, which is worse.

Agency broker versus principal OTC desk

The cleanest way to think about it is whether you take the other side of the trade.

An agency broker never does. The client wants to buy; the broker finds the liquidity — a venue, a counterparty, a liquidity provider — and routes or executes the order there. The broker earns a commission or spread for the service, but the market risk and the position sit with the client and the venue. Under MiCA this is reception and transmission of orders, and execution of orders on behalf of clients. Both are Class 1 services.

A principal OTC desk does take the other side. The client asks for a quote; the desk prices it and trades against the client from its own inventory. That’s dealing on own account, and under MiCA it’s the exchange of crypto-assets for funds or other crypto-assets — the exchange service, which sits in Class 2.

The distinction isn’t cosmetic. It changes your capital floor, your risk profile, and how the supervisor reads your file. French crypto counsel like William O’Rorke, who has run brokerage and OTC mandates through the PSAN-to-MiCA transition, treats the agency-versus-principal call as the first thing to nail down — everything else cascades from it.

CASP class and capital

The class follows the services. See the full breakdown in our CASP class decision guide, but the short version for brokerage:

• Agency-only broker, no custody, no exchange — Class 1 profile, EUR 50,000 own-funds floor. The lightest path.
• Principal OTC desk providing exchange — Class 2 profile, EUR 125,000 floor.
• Either, if it custodies client assets — Class 2 at minimum, with Article 75 segregation and a heavier ICT and capital burden.

Remember the Article 67 override: own funds are the higher of the class floor or one-quarter of fixed overheads. A broker with EUR 800,000 of annual fixed overheads holds EUR 200,000 regardless of class. The floor is a minimum, not the number.

Best execution — the duty brokers underrate

Where you execute client orders, MiCA’s best-execution duty applies. You have to take all reasonable steps to obtain the best possible result for the client, weighing price, costs, speed, likelihood of execution and settlement, and size.

In practice that means a written execution policy, a defensible process for selecting venues and counterparties, ongoing monitoring of execution quality, and clear disclosure to clients about how and where their orders get executed. It’s a real deliverable in the application file and a live obligation once you’re authorised.

This is where crypto-native desks struggle. A casual “we get good prices” culture doesn’t survive contact with the duty. The execution policy has to be specific, monitored, and honest about conflicts — especially for a principal desk, where the firm’s book and the client’s interest can pull in opposite directions.

The custody trap

Here’s the line a lot of brokers want to stay on the right side of. The moment you hold client crypto-assets — even in transit, even briefly — Article 75 engages. Segregation from firm assets, daily reconciliation, bankruptcy-remoteness, and a meaningfully higher capital and ICT-resilience burden.

Plenty of brokers design custody out on purpose. They route settlement to a third-party custodian or have the venue hold assets, so client crypto never sits on the broker’s balance sheet. That keeps them lighter — lower capital, less ICT, no Article 75 segregation programme.

The risk is drifting into custody without deciding to. An operational shortcut that parks client assets on the firm’s wallets for convenience can quietly turn a Class 1 broker into an under-licensed, under-capitalised custodian. Decide your custody posture deliberately, and build the flows to match it.

The passport upside

The reason to do this properly is the passport. A single CASP authorisation lets a broker or OTC desk serve clients across all 27 EU member states from one home-state licence, under Article 65 passporting. For a brokerage chasing pan-European order flow, that’s the whole point — one authorisation, 27 markets, no separate licence per country.

That upside is exactly why the scope has to be right. The passport carries whatever you’re authorised for. Under-scope the services and you’ve passported a business narrower than the one you actually run.

Practical takeaways

Three things to settle before you apply.

Map services, not titles. Write down what your desk actually does — route, execute, place, deal as principal, hold assets. The CASP class and capital read straight off that list.

Decide agency or principal. It sets your class, your capital floor, and your conflicts profile. Don’t call a principal desk a broker.

Choose your custody posture on purpose. Avoiding custody keeps you lighter under Article 75. Drifting into it by accident leaves you under-licensed. For the conduct side, the best-execution rules are a real obligation, not a slogan.

For corrections, updates, or counsel referrals on crypto brokerage and OTC-desk licensing under MiCA, email [email protected].