Behind Licentium
Our Edge
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.
Any CASP that was lawfully active somewhere in the EU before 30 December 2024 may continue serving that Member State until 1 July 2026 or until its MiCA authorisation is granted or refused—whichever comes first. Under Belgium’s pre-MiCA Royal Decree of 8 February 2022, no firm ever obtained registration—every file remained incomplete—so there are no Belgian-registered CASPs to roll over into the transitional regime.
A CASP licensed elsewhere in the EU may keep serving Belgian users during the grace period if (a) it was already providing those activities in Belgium on 30 December 2024 (even without a local branch) and (b) it remains fully authorised and supervised in its home state while meeting all applicable rules there.
Once a CASP receives a MiCA licence in any Member State, the European passport allows it to offer those services across the EU—Belgium included—either through freedom of establishment (branching) or free provision of services (cross-border without a branch).
MiCA introduces the EU’s first comprehensive consumer-protection layer for crypto-assets. During the transitional window, however, that layer does not yet apply; Belgian consumers remain protected only by the FSMA’s own rules restricting the marketing of virtual currencies. The FSMA emphasises continued hazards—extreme price volatility, fraud prevalence, and heightened technology risks—making many crypto-assets unsuitable for typical retail clients.
The EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (Belgium)
Since 30 December 2024 the EU Regulation on Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) has applied directly in every Member State; no national transposition is required. MiCA supplies a single EU-level rule-book for public offers or admissions to trading of crypto-assets, the full suite of crypto-asset services, and market-abuse prevention for crypto-assets. Because MiCA is self-executing, Belgium cannot block a duly authorised CASP from operating on its territory, even while national “competent authorities” are still being formally designated.
