Crypto‑Asset Licence in Sweden
The EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) and the related Transfer-of-Funds Regulation (TFR) become directly applicable in Sweden on 30 December 2024. To give the two EU regulations full effect domestically, the Swedish Government tabled Proposition 2024/25:43, “En ny EU-reglering om marknader för kryptotillgångar,” on 24 October 2024. The bill introduces a new Complementary Act and a suite of amendments to existing financial and AML statutes.
The new act (“Lag med kompletterande bestämmelser till EU:s förordning om marknader för kryptotillgångar”) is designed to fill regulatory gaps that EU regulations leave to Member States. It covers:
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Designation of the competent authority;
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Supervisory, investigative and product-intervention powers;
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Administrative procedures for authorisations, white-paper filings and notifications;
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Domestic enforcement tools, penalties and appeal routes;
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Rules on marketing, confidentiality, data-handling and cooperation with other agencies.
Parallel amendments are proposed to the Currency Exchange Act, the Banking and Financing Business Act, the Payment-Services Act, the E-Money Act, the Money-Laundering and Terrorist-Financing Prevention Act, the Public Access to Information and Secrecy Act and several procedural laws, so that all references and sanction regimes align with MiCA.
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The bill confirms that the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (Finansinspektionen, FI) remains Sweden’s “behörig myndighet” under MiCA. FI will:
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Receive and decide on authorisation applications from issuers and CASPs whose home Member State is Sweden;
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Monitor on-going compliance, including fitness-and-propriety requirements for owners and senior management;
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Exercise extensive investigatory powers (information requests, on-site inspections, injunctions);
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Publish corrective information where disclosures or marketing are misleading.
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MiCA makes white papers and specific customer disclosures mandatory. The Swedish act ties these duties to the Marketing Act (Marknadsföringslagen 2008:486): any information required by MiCA or contained in a white paper is deemed “material” for the purposes of misleading-marketing rules. However, the bill excludes the Marketing Act’s administrative-fine regime (marknadsstörningsavgift) to avoid double sanctions; breaches are instead handled through FI’s MiCA toolkit.
CASPs already operating lawfully in Sweden before 30 December 2024 may continue until they obtain – or are refused – a MiCA licence, but only up to 30 September 2025. The Government thus shortens the default EU transition window (which runs to 1 July 2026) in line with ESMA’s recommendation, arguing that Sweden’s current light-touch registration regime is less stringent than MiCA.
CASPs and certain token issuers will continue to be “obliged entities” under the Swedish Money-Laundering Act. The TFR’s travel-rule obligations will operate alongside MiCA, and FI will supervise both sets of requirements.
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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.
