Bitpanda CEO says MiCA is tilting Europe’s crypto market toward licensed exchanges

Europe's crypto rulebook is no longer a theory. According to Bitpanda co-CEO Christian Trummer, it is now shaping which exchanges ordinary people actually trust. In an interview with Cointelegraph, Trummer said the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets framework, known as MiCA, has boosted retail confidence in licensed platforms.

He also raised a pointed question: whether rival exchanges that skipped the compliance work may be pushed out of Europe altogether. Trummer's core argument is that MiCA changed how everyday users choose where to keep their crypto, with customers now placing more trust in regulated exchanges than in non-compliant alternatives.

Regulatory enforcement begins

The timing of these comments is not accidental. MiCA gave existing crypto providers a grandfathering period, essentially a grace window to keep serving customers while they secured authorization. That window ended no later than July 1, 2026. After that date, the grace period stopped being a cushion and the enforcement phase began.

The European Securities and Markets Authority, ESMA, has since urged national regulators to act against unauthorized operators. It has also pushed for stronger measures against third-country entities that target EU users from outside the bloc.

Bitpanda's compliance advantage

Bitpanda has spent the past couple of years collecting the licenses that now matter most. It received MiCA authorization from Germany's BaFin in January 2025, followed by authorization from Austria's FMA in April 2025. Together, those approvals let Bitpanda operate across the European Economic Area.

The company says it holds all necessary MiCA authorizations for its services. Bitpanda also brings scale to the conversation, counting over 7 million registered users. Trummer himself is newly back in the top seat, returning as co-CEO on September 15, 2026, landing right as the post-grandfathering enforcement period got underway.

Competitive landscape shifts

Trummer's comments add fuel to one of crypto's oldest arguments: Is the industry's future built on users holding their own keys, or on regulated intermediaries holding them on users' behalf? Trummer's observation is that ordinary customers, given a regulated option, are increasingly choosing it anyway.

The most immediate implication is competitive. If enforcement against unauthorized firms intensifies as ESMA has urged, users of non-compliant platforms could find those services restricted or unavailable in their country. For exchanges that did not invest in compliance, the choices narrow: pursue authorization, scale back European operations, or risk running into national regulators.

That is likely why Trummer is calling for stricter oversight out loud. A rulebook only creates a competitive edge for compliant firms if it is enforced against everyone else.