BitPay secures Dutch MiCA license, sets sights on stablecoin expansion across EU

BitPay just cleared one of the more meaningful regulatory hurdles in European crypto. The Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets, known as the AFM, granted BitPay B.V. authorization as a crypto-asset service provider under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation on July 16, 2026.

In English: BitPay can now legally offer payment processing, cross-border transfers, and consumer-facing crypto services across all 27 EU member states from a single regulatory home base.

Why the Netherlands, and why now

The Netherlands has quietly positioned itself as the preferred landing spot for crypto firms navigating MiCA. The AFM has issued multiple CASP licenses across 2025 and 2026, with MoonPay among the other firms to have received authorization through the Dutch regulator.

For BitPay, the move builds on existing infrastructure. The company had previously operated under supervision from the Dutch Central Bank, known as the DNB, under anti-money laundering rules. The MiCA authorization is an upgrade, replacing patchwork national compliance with a single harmonized EU framework.

BitPay’s Chief Compliance Officer Thom de Jong said the MiCA authorization “significantly strengthens the company’s capacity to serve both businesses and consumers with compliant digital asset services throughout the EU.”

Stablecoins are the real story here

BitPay was founded in May 2011 by Tony Gallippi and Stephen Pair, which makes it one of the oldest surviving crypto payment processors on the planet.

The company’s immediate focus post-licensing is stablecoin payments. BitPay currently supports USDC as its primary stablecoin, and the company reports that stablecoin transactions now represent a substantial and growing share of its total payment volume.

What this means for the broader market

BitPay now has a passport to operate across the EU without needing to negotiate individual country registrations. For merchants, businesses that previously hesitated to accept crypto payments because of unclear regulatory status now have a counterparty that is formally authorized by an EU-recognized regulator.

With MoonPay and BitPay both holding Dutch CASP licenses, and other firms likely queuing behind them, the EU crypto payments market is moving from regulatory gray zone toward something resembling a normal industry.

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