Crypto‑Asset Licence in Spain
Spain has opted to bring the EU Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) into full domestic effect faster than the default EU timetable. A Cabinet decision of 26 October 2023 shortened the maximum transition window for crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) from 18 to 12 months, so the Spanish regime will be fully operational by 30 December 2025, six months earlier than the EU fallback date of July 2026.
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CNMV (Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores) is designated as Spain’s competent authority for most MiCA matters, including authorising CASPs, monitoring white-paper obligations and enforcing market-abuse rules.
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Banco de España will supervise issuers of asset-referenced tokens (ARTs) and e-money tokens (EMTs) and may impose prudential or product-intervention measures on those issuers.
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Existing providers that were lawfully offering crypto-asset services before 30 December 2024 may continue to do so only until 30 December 2025 (or until their MiCA licence is granted or refused, whichever comes first). Spain will rely on the Bank of Spain’s anti-money-laundering register—created in 2021 for exchange and custody providers—to identify entities eligible for the grace period; no new entries will be accepted after MiCA starts to apply.
From 31 December 2025 onward, any firm that wants to offer crypto-asset services to Spanish clients must hold a MiCA authorisation issued by the CNMV or another EU authority and be passported into Spain. CASPs must meet MiCA’s organisational, conduct-of-business and safeguarding rules, including: fitness & probity for senior managers, capital requirements, segregation of client assets, and robust ICT/cyber-resilience arrangements. The CNMV has announced it will publish clear templates and check-lists to speed up processing of applications during 2025.
Until an EU-wide machine-readable template becomes mandatory on 23 December 2025, issuers of “other crypto-assets” (i.e. not ARTs/EMTs) must file their white papers and related marketing materials with the CNMV at least 20 working days before publication, using the virtual office’s ad-hoc upload channel.
On 28 December 2024 the CNMV issued Circular 1/2024, repealing its earlier national advertising rule (Circular 1/2022). Because MiCA now establishes directly applicable standards for crypto-asset marketing—“impartial, clear and non-misleading” information—the prior Spanish requirement for pre-notifying mass campaigns has been dropped; however, the CNMV retains power to sanction non-compliant adverts ex post.
During the transition year the existing AML registration under Law 10/2010 remains the reference point for exchange and custodial services. Once MiCA licences take over, the Bank of Spain register will stay online only for verification of entities that were already listed, and CASPs will continue to be “obliged entities” for AML purposes.
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Licentium is a specialized platform that connects crypto-asset issuers and service providers with an international network of lawyers, regulatory consultants, and former supervisors. Projects can map applicable rules in key jurisdictions through a single interface, obtain jurisdiction-specific launch advice, arrange the drafting of white papers and licensing applications, and schedule ongoing compliance health-checks. The platform’s curated expert pool spans financial services, data protection, and corporate law, enabling founders to address cross-border requirements—from MiCA in the EU to securities, AML, and consumer-protection regimes elsewhere—within coherent project timelines and budgets.
