The recommended crypto delisting route is to separate the trading stop from the return of customer holdings. Provide a usable withdrawal route, offer conversion on the customer's recorded request, and retain a lawful arrangement for unresolved balances. A blanket conversion triggered by silence should be removed from the plan. MiCA requires procedures to return holdings; the Commission's published interpretation requires the same asset type and a customer request at withdrawal for an alternative payout. (Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCA), art 75(6); Commission answer in ESMA Q&A 2320, 18 February 2026.)
- Set separate decisions and dates for trading, order cancellation, withdrawals and custody. Trading-platform rules govern continued admission and suspension; customer ownership and return duties continue independently. (MiCA, arts 70(1), 75 and 76(1)(f)–(h).)
- Replace compulsory conversion with a customer choice supported by the necessary service permission, price methodology and execution controls. Notice or a general terms clause cannot supply unlimited disposal authority. (MiCA, arts 59(6), 66, 75–78; ESMA Q&A 2320.)
- Review the actual contract and each customer category before selecting notice periods. Irish detailed consumer notice rules have territorial and service-specific limits. (Consumer Rights Act 2022, ss 129–134 and sch 5; S.I. No. 81/2025, regs 14–15, 62 and 69.)
- Check the Brazilian contracting and receiving entities. Local delisting duties, transition status and the counterparty restriction starting on 6 November 2026 can change the available route. (Resolução BCB 520/2025, arts 23, 64, 88 and 91, Annex, item II; Resolução BCB 589/2026.)
- Complete the process against reconciled customer entitlements. A residual balance requires an accountable custody or claims arrangement and records supporting its treatment. (MiCA, art 75(2), (6)–(8); Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/1140, arts 2–5.)
Define the action and its legal basis
The decision record should distinguish five events. A trading suspension temporarily restricts orders under the platform rules or a supervisory direction. Delisting ends admission on that venue. Custody cessation concerns who controls and must return holdings. A protocol failure concerns technical performance and possible liability. An issuer event can change redemption, migration or other token rights. Each needs its own factual basis, contractual power and legal assessment. (MiCA, arts 39, 49, 75–76 and 94(1)(n)–(o).)
Classify the token first. Financial instruments fall outside MiCA's ordinary cryptoasset regime. For changes to the ledger or token rights, Article 75(4) protects newly created rights unless the specified prior agreement validly provides otherwise. ESMA requires prior express, signed and affirmative consent to that derogation; ordinary acceptance of standard terms is insufficient. (MiCA, arts 2(4)(a), 75(4); ESMA Q&A 2290, 17 June 2025.)
A non-compliant asset-referenced or e-money token needs a different timetable. ESMA's 8 October 2026 opinion expects cessation of services involving these tokens for EU customers, including custody and transfers. Residual services depend on closely supervised, time-limited arrangements to protect existing holders. Supervisors should require remediation as soon as possible and within three months of publication. This is a supervisory opinion, not a new statutory power to sell customer assets. (ESMA Opinion ESMA75-113276571-1742, paras 12–14, 21–27.)
The Irish legal team should therefore approve the reason, permissions and restrictions before operations announces dates. The wider licensing questions described on the Exchanges page sit alongside the asset-specific decision.
Amend the contract and make the notice usable
Read the accepted versions of the trading and custody terms. Identify the delisting trigger, suspension powers, termination procedure, withdrawal restrictions, charges and governing law. Record how each customer accepted them. Revise any provision that treats failure to respond as permission for the proposed conversion. Future terms should describe the supported exit routes, the consent process and the treatment of assets that cannot move. Changing terms cannot retrospectively cure a missing authority. (MiCA, arts 66, 75(1), (5)–(6); ESMA Q&A 2320.)
For an Irish-law consumer contract concluded from 29 November 2022 within Part 6 of the Consumer Rights Act 2022, assess good faith, significant imbalance, transparency and financial consequences. Schedule 5 addresses unilateral changes and termination, with specific exceptions for financial services and market-linked prices. Those exceptions do not themselves authorise disposal or displace the general unfairness test. (Consumer Rights Act 2022, ss 127, 129–134 and sch 5, pts 1–2.) Earlier contracts require review under the preserved pre-2022 unfair-terms regime. (Consumer Rights Act 2022, s 9(4).)
There is no single MiCA notice period for every asset delisting. For consumers within Ireland's detailed Consumer Protection Regulations, a material change to terms of business requires at least five working days' notice. Increased or additional charges generally require at least 30 calendar days' direct notice on a durable medium. The two-month rule needs separate assessment if the delisting constitutes cessation, merger or transfer of regulated activities. These periods have different triggers and do not establish that a particular exit window is fair or sufficient. (S.I. No. 81/2025, as amended, regs 14–15, 62, 69 and 125.)
Send the reason, affected asset and network, trading and withdrawal dates, pending-order treatment, available choices, charges, pricing method and consequences of no response. Include a route for small balances, incompatible destinations and complaints. Deliver the communication through the agreed channels and retain evidence of delivery and reminders. MiCA requires prompt information where an operation needs a customer response. Customer communications must remain accurate while problems are resolved. (MiCA, arts 66(2), 71 and 75(5).)
Obtain the conversion instruction and control the price
The Commission's answer distinguishes an optional exchange from returning custody assets. It requires the customer's request at withdrawal and the relevant permission for the additional service. The company should collect an authenticated choice specifying the asset sold, proceeds asset, price or pricing method, charges and destination. Disclose the net result and the point at which the order becomes binding. A customer who cannot use the withdrawal route has not thereby instructed a sale. (ESMA Q&A 2320; MiCA, arts 59(6), 75(6) and 77(2)–(3).)
Identify how the company will transact. A principal exchange must publish a firm price or price-determination method and execute at the displayed price when the order becomes final. Execution on behalf of the customer engages the best-result duty and execution policy, subject to specific customer instructions. Prior consent to that policy is required; execution outside a trading platform requires prior express consent. (MiCA, arts 77–78.)
Document liquidity, reference prices, spreads, fees, timing, slippage and the counterparty. Address any group benefit or inventory interest through the conflicts policy and an independent internal pricing review. Disclosure alone does not resolve a conflict. An operator cannot deal on its own account on the trading platform it operates. Restrict staff trading and information access where the proposed delisting meets the inside-information test. (MiCA, arts 66(4), 72, 76(5), 87 and 89–90; Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/1142, arts 3–4 and 7.)
If there is no supportable executable price, suspend the proposed conversion and offer another lawful route. Cash proceeds require safeguarding and any applicable payment-service permissions. Replacing a token balance with an unsupported cash claim would leave the exit unfinished. (MiCA, art 70(2)–(5).) An e-money token payout, including a transfer to the same customer, may itself be a payment service and needs a separate permissions assessment under the second Payment Services Directive. (EBA/OP/2026/01, paras 14–15.)
Preserve the rights attached to stranded holdings
Treat the withdrawal obstacle before fixing the custody end date. The Commission permits agreed technical requirements and fees, but technical limitations must not make return difficult for most customers. Test the threshold against actual balances and network costs. Lowering a platform minimum, subsidising necessary transaction costs or using a supported operational transfer may provide an effective return. These are implementation options, not a rule requiring every network fee to be waived. (MiCA, arts 66(1), 75(1), (6); ESMA Q&A 2320.)
Where another service cannot receive the asset, test a compatible self-hosted address or an accepting authorised custodian. Confirm the network and address format before transfer. Moving customer contracts to a replacement provider requires its own agreement and acceptance process, addressed separately in the customer migration analysis. Delegating custody while retaining the customer relationship requires an Article 59-authorised custodian and disclosure to customers. (MiCA, arts 73 and 75(9).)
For unresponsive customers, preserve their allocated holdings, keys and records under a lawful residual-custody arrangement. Assign responsibility, costs and a review timetable. Neither silence nor the expiry of the announced window establishes abandonment. A technical failure requires a documented recovery and liability assessment; attributable custody losses engage Article 75(8). A zero accounting valuation does not establish that the customer's rights have ended. The custody and staking rights guide explains the wider ownership and control questions. (MiCA, arts 70(1), 75(2)–(8).)
Continued custody must itself remain lawful, including under any supervisory restriction. Escalate holdings that cannot be returned or lawfully maintained before retiring the service. Record the unresolved entitlement and the legal process needed to resolve it; do not create a confiscation or destruction rule in the closure script. (MiCA, arts 70(1), 75(6)–(8); ESMA Opinion ESMA75-113276571-1742, paras 23–24.)
Check the Brazilian relationship and receiving route
Identify whether customers contract directly with the Irish CASP or use a Brazilian provider that appoints it as custodian. Review residence, customer capacity, marketing, local distribution and payment arrangements. An Irish choice-of-law clause does not eliminate the mandatory protections preserved by Rome I where its consumer-contract conditions apply. Brazilian consumer relationships also require assessment under the Consumer Defence Code, including Portuguese information, intelligible terms and limits on unfair unilateral changes. (Regulation (EC) No 593/2008, arts 2 and 6; Lei 14.478/2022, art 13; Lei 8.078/1990, arts 2–3, 31, 46–47 and 51.)
A foreign entity conducting virtual-asset activities in Brazil on 2 February 2026 had 270 days to transfer that local business to an eligible Brazilian institution if it intended to continue regular local activity. That period ended on 30 October. Whether the Irish CASP met that territorial trigger depends on its operating facts. From 6 November 2026, institutions authorised by the Central Bank of Brazil face restrictions on facilitating operations with unauthorised provider counterparties, subject to expressly permitted arrangements. Check those exceptions and any transitional entitlement for the actual recipient. The restriction is not a ban on every individual customer's withdrawal. (Resolução BCB 520/2025, arts 23, 83, 88 and 91, as amended by Resolução BCB 589/2026.)
Where a Brazilian entity is subject to the full conduct rules, its delisting policy must address protective procedures, order cancellation, trading cessation, the withdrawal period and costs. Confirm when those duties apply to a transitional applicant. If the Irish CASP is its foreign custodian, assess the separate foreign-custody conditions. (Resolução BCB 520/2025, art 64 and Annex, item II; arts 73(6), 83 and 88(1)–(3).)
A Brazilian return leg can also engage foreign-exchange permissions and wallet-origin and destination checks. The receiving provider must confirm that its permission, asset support and transaction route cover this return. (Resolução BCB 277/2022, arts 29 and 76-A–76-B.)
Clear transfer restrictions before releasing assets
The EU Travel Rule applies to covered transfers involving the Irish CASP, including returns. Collect the required originator and beneficiary information before an outgoing transfer. Self-hosted addresses are not generally prohibited: information duties apply across values, with an additional assessment for transfers exceeding EUR 1,000 of whether the address is owned or controlled by the relevant CASP's customer. That threshold is not a general exemption for small balances. (Regulation (EU) 2023/1113, arts 2, 14 and 16.)
Distinguish missing information from a technical failure, an AML restriction or an asset freeze. Each needs its own reason and permitted response. A beneficiary CASP applies risk-based procedures to missing information; an outgoing CASP must satisfy Article 14 before initiating the transfer. Retain safeguarded holdings while a genuine legal block remains, give permissible explanations and seek the information or authority needed for release. Brazilian implementation periods do not postpone the Irish CASP's EU duties. (Regulation (EU) 2023/1113, arts 14(8), 17–18 and 23; Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010, ss 33, 42 and 49; Resolução BCB 520/2025, art 89.)
Close against reconciled entitlements
Legal and compliance should approve the asset classification, contract analysis, notices and permitted routes. Operations should reconcile customer positions against controlled wallets, sub-custodian records, pending orders and unsettled transfers. Treasury should retain the price and charge evidence for each instructed conversion. Customer support should track failed delivery, rejected transfers and complaints. These assignments implement the custody and record-keeping duties; they do not transfer the Irish CASP's responsibility to another group company. (MiCA, arts 68, 73 and 75; Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/1140, arts 2–7.)
The completion record should show each opening entitlement, authorised movement, proceeds or delivered asset, fee and remaining balance. Preserve instructions, transaction identifiers, destination evidence and closing statements. Keep unresolved assets separately allocated with a responsible owner. Apply the relevant retention periods and legal holds; MiCA's general five-year period is not a universal deletion date, and applicable Irish consumer records can require six years. (MiCA, art 68(9); Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/1140, arts 4–5; S.I. No. 81/2025, regs 115–118.)
Approve the legal basis first. Establish usable exit routes before issuing the notice. Obtain and execute customer instructions, resolve exceptions, and reconcile the final positions before disabling custody infrastructure. If those conditions cannot be met, narrow or postpone the custody cessation while implementing any trading restriction that must already take effect.
Prepare the delisting file
For a token delisting or asset-support change, contact Licentium with the customer terms, asset and network details, proposed timetable and residual-balance report.