Vivid Money Secures MiCAR Licence from Dutch AFM to Offer Regulated Crypto Services Across EU
Vivid Money B.V., the Dutch entity of the Berlin-founded fintech, received authorisation as a Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR) from the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) in May 2025.
What MiCAR Means
MiCAR, which entered full force across the EU in December 2024, established the world’s first comprehensive regulatory framework for crypto-asset services. Under MiCAR, a CASP licence from one EU national authority acts as a single EU passport — enabling regulated crypto services across all 27 EU member states without additional country-by-country registration.
Impact on Vivid’s Crypto Services
Prior to the MiCAR licence, Vivid offered crypto services under an Italian Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) registration — a less rigorous framework that predated MiCAR. From 1 July 2025, all Vivid crypto services migrated to the newly licensed Dutch entity, which brought:
- Full MiCAR-compliant custody, trading, and exchange services
- Enhanced consumer protections including mandatory disclosures and custody segregation
- Passportable licence covering all EU member states
Context: MiCAR Licensing Race
The MiCAR licensing race was a significant theme in European fintech in 2025. Several major neobanks and crypto platforms pursued CASP licences in Q1–Q2 2025, with the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and France emerging as preferred licensing jurisdictions due to their efficient AFM, CSSF, and AMF processes respectively.
Lunar (Denmark) obtained its MiCA CASP licence in October 2025, becoming the first Scandinavian institution to do so.