Kaupr Today - Wednesday, June 24 2026
MiCA's grace period ends in seven days — and the last-minute licence rush is telling us exactly who built for Europe and who didn't. Meanwhile, stablecoins are quietly becoming the plumbing of global payments.
Some of the stories in today's edition:
💎 Bitcoin Suisse and Ripple secure MiCA licences in the final stretch
💎 EU opens review of MiCA — the ink is barely dry
💎 MiniPay and Visa take stablecoin spending to 175 million merchant locations
💎 Chainlink joins 47 banks to settle FX trades in near real time
💎 European Parliament backs digital euro to cut Visa and dollar dependence
— Morten
📅 Kaupr Event — State of ETFs in the Nordics: Digital Assets & Regulated Products | June 30, 11:00–13:00 CET
On June 30, Kaupr brings together senior voices from issuers, researchers, platforms and asset managers to take stock of the Nordic digital-asset ETF and ETP market — built around the wealth management, family office, private banking and institutional investor perspective. Live on LinkedIn, YouTube and kaupr.io from 11:00–13:00 CET. Open to all.
Confirmed speakers: Alex Pollak (21Shares) · Christopher Kock (Virtune) · Håkon Holm Østvedt (Nasdaq) · Jacob Lindberg (Valour) · Marco Poblete (Bitwise Europe) · Marcus Thomas (Xenix) · Martin Leinweber (MarketVector)
Host and moderator: Morten Myrstad
MiCA's final week — licences, exits, what comes next
With the MiCA transition deadline hitting on 1 July, the last few days before the hard deadline are producing a wave of licence announcements, strategic pivots, and regulatory scrutiny. This is what the end of the grace period looks like in practice.
Bitcoin Suisse secures MiCA licence for European expansion
Bitcoin Suisse (Europe) AG has received a CASP licence from Liechtenstein's Financial Market Authority, giving the Zug-based crypto financial services firm — which holds over CHF 6 billion in assets under custody — regulated access to the European Economic Area. Roman Przibylla, formerly of Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank and HSBC, has been appointed CEO of the European entity to lead the expansion.
Why it matters: Bitcoin Suisse is one of Switzerland's most established crypto firms entering Europe under MiCA — a signal that the regulation is attracting serious institutional players, not just native crypto exchanges.
Source: Bitcoin Suisse secures MiCA licence for European expansion — Kaupr
Ripple secures MiCA approval at the eleventh hour — ready for European push
Ripple has received a preliminary "Green Light Letter" for a CASP licence from Luxembourg's CSSF, covering all 30 EEA countries. Combined with its existing EU Electronic Money Institution licence, the approval creates a single regulated rail for Ripple Payments and RLUSD across Europe — with the full licence expected to follow the same two-step pattern as its EMI approval in February 2026.
Why it matters: Ripple joins roughly 210 MiCA-compliant firms just eight days before the July 1 deadline, at a moment when major exchanges like Binance are still in doubt — widening the gap between institutional-grade operators and the rest.
MiCAHub expands from MiCA to compliance and new markets
MiCAHub, the compliance and licensing platform built around MiCA, is expanding its scope beyond the EU regulation to cover broader compliance frameworks and new geographic markets. The expansion reflects growing demand from crypto firms seeking integrated regulatory infrastructure across multiple jurisdictions.
Why it matters: As MiCA becomes the baseline, the compliance layer built on top of it is becoming a business in its own right — and MiCAHub's pivot signals where the next phase of post-MiCA infrastructure is heading.
Source: MiCAHub expands from MiCA to compliance and new markets — Kaupr
EU opens consultation on MiCA revision — the regulation is already under review
The European Commission has launched a targeted consultation on whether MiCA remains fit for purpose, with feedback due by 31 August 2026. Critics have pointed to the stablecoin chapter — including a blanket ban on interest payments and cash reserve requirements of up to 60% — as rules that may already be pushing issuers toward less competitive structures.
Why it matters: MiCA isn't even fully in force and the EU is already reviewing it — a sign of how fast the market is moving relative to regulatory timelines, and a reminder that the current framework is a starting point, not an endpoint.
Source: Targeted consultation — review of the MiCA Regulation — European Commission
🎧 10 minutes. Morten's take. Where is MiCA actually heading? Kaupr Weekly Episode 5 — The MiCA Countdown
Stablecoins find their infrastructure moment
MiniPay launches Visa debit card for stablecoin users in emerging markets
Opera's MiniPay — a self-custodial stablecoin wallet built on Celo, with over 16 million activated wallets across 65 countries — has launched a digital Visa debit card in collaboration with Gnosis Pay. The card connects stablecoin balances to 175 million Visa merchant locations in 46 countries, with no monthly fees and cashback in USDT, USDC, and Tether Gold in selected markets. (Source: press release)
Why it matters: Opera is a Norwegian-founded, Nasdaq-listed company, and this launch turns MiniPay's emerging-market stablecoin base into a global spending instrument — the clearest sign yet that the "last meter" problem for stablecoin payments is being solved.
Source: MiniPay launches MiniPay Card, a digital Visa debit card for stablecoin users — MarketScreener (Source: press release)
Chainlink joins 47 European and South Korean banks to settle FX in near real time
Chainlink has joined Project Pangea, a coalition of Qivalis (37 European banks) and UniKA (10+ South Korean banks) representing over $10 trillion in combined assets, to test near-instant stablecoin settlement of euro/Korean won FX trades over the $150 billion Europe–South Korea trade corridor. The target is live T+0 atomic swap transactions within 12 months, using existing Swift and ISO 20022 infrastructure as the entry point.
Why it matters: This is one of the most operationally ambitious stablecoin-in-banking projects announced in 2026 — 47 real institutions, a live trade corridor, and a hard 12-month deadline. It is not a proof of concept.
Source: Chainlink teams up with 47 South Korean, European banks to speed up international money transfers — CoinDesk
Bitso: stablecoins are reshaping global payments — and we're calling it hybrid finance
Latin America's leading crypto exchange Bitso has published a stablecoin landscape report for H1 2026, showing that dollar-pegged stablecoins overtook Bitcoin as the most-purchased crypto asset among its users in 2025, with USDC and USDT accounting for 40% of all purchases. Institutional stablecoin volume on Bitso rose 81% year-on-year, with banks and licensed payment providers making up over 60% of new corporate customers. (Source: press release)
Why it matters: Bitso's numbers are the clearest Latin American data point yet that stablecoins have crossed from trading instrument to payment infrastructure — and the institutional onboarding figures suggest the shift is durable.
Source: Bitso unveils the hybrid finance era as stablecoins reshape global payments — CoinDesk (Source: press release)
Europe draws a line on monetary sovereignty
European Parliament backs digital euro to cut dependence on Visa, Mastercard, and the dollar
The European Parliament's economic committee has backed the digital euro, with the full Parliament expected to follow and negotiations with EU member states to begin. The ECB targets a pilot from mid-2027 and potential first issuance in 2029, contingent on legislation passing in 2026. Supporters frame the project explicitly as a sovereign European payments alternative to Visa, Mastercard, and US dollar stablecoins, which currently process nearly two-thirds of euro area card transactions.
Why it matters: The digital euro just crossed from a policy debate into a legislative process — and the geopolitical framing (US infrastructure dependence) is now the primary public argument for it, not just the technical one.
Source: Digital euro expected to launch by 2029 after EU backing — Euronews
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Wishing you a great Wednesday — and welcome back tomorrow morning for the next edition of Kaupr Today.
Best regards
Morten Myrstad
Founder & Editor