Cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase and Gemini are reportedly on the verge of being licensed in Europe.
That’s according to a report Friday (June 13) by Reuters, which noted that the companies are reaching this milestone amid contention among European Union (EU) regulators over how quickly and easily some countries are granting such licenses.
The EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation lets member states grant licenses that permit crypto companies to operate throughout the EU. However, sources tell Reuters that there has been concern among regulators during closed-door meetings about the speed with which licenses are being issued.
At issue, the report said, is the oversight of the crypto industry, which regulators contend could promote fraud, market instability and illegal financial flows without proper oversight. MiCA was designed to place the sector under the same regulatory agenda as the traditional finance world, Reuters added, though some are worried that uneven enforcement could undermine that goal.
Against this backdrop, crypto trading platform Gemini is poised to receive its operating license from Malta, the smallest EU nation, two sources told Reuters. Malta has granted similar approvals to OKX and Crypto.com.
However, the report said, the pace of Malta’s approval has attracted scrutiny from other national regulators within the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). France, for example, has publicly warned that ESMA’s lack of authority could trigger a “regulatory race to the bottom.”
According to the report, the regulatory debate has heated up with the anticipation that Luxembourg will soon award a license to Coinbase, one of the sources said. Although the application has been in the works for several months, one source cited the relatively modest size of Coinbase’s planned operation in Luxembourg.
A spokesperson for the company declined to comment on its application but said Coinbase employed 200 in Europe and that it invested in staff to make sure operations were safe, adding that Luxembourg was a “high-bar, well respected global financial center” and that Coinbase would hire more than 20 people there by the year’s end.
In related news, PYMNTS wrote last week about the legislative progress of the GENIUS Act, which is poised to become the first comprehensive stablecoin law in the U.S.
The legislation, which cleared a key Senate procedural vote by a 68-30 margin last week, is designed to create rules for dollar-backed stablecoins, requiring them to be fully reserved and subject to federal or state regulatory oversight.
Supporters argue that the GENIUS Act will protect consumers, promote innovation, and strengthen the U.S. dollar’s global standing.
Still, the bill has become a flashpoint for broader debates over financial regulation. More than 120 amendments have been introduced, among them provisions unrelated to stablecoins, like credit card fee caps and presidential trade powers.
“Those additions could turn the legislation into a battleground for the future of payments,” PYMNTS wrote. “Notably, Walmart has lobbied for an amendment to introduce more competition in the credit card sector, reflecting merchants’ longstanding frustration with card network fees.”
