Netherlands: Crypto Licensing

Crypto Licensing

The Netherlands operates its crypto-licensing regime under MiCA (Regulation (EU) 2023/1114), with the AFM as the competent authority for crypto-asset service provider authorisation and conduct supervision. Providing crypto-asset services professionally in or from the Netherlands requires AFM authorisation under MiCA Articles 59 and 62, unless the provider is already an authorised EU financial entity that can instead notify under Article 60. This requirement has been in force since 30 December 2024 and constitutes the core gating mechanism for lawful crypto-asset service provision in the jurisdiction.

The transitional pathway into this regime was shortened at the national level. The Uitvoeringswet verordening cryptoactiva set the MiCA Article 143(3) national grandfathering period for DNB-registered incumbent crypto-asset service providers to end on 30 June 2025, six months rather than the full eighteen-month EU maximum extension to 1 July 2026. This meant incumbent providers that had been operating under the earlier Wwft-era DNB registration faced a compressed window to secure full MiCA authorisation rather than the longer runway available in some other member states.

The enforcement baseline that preceded MiCA illustrates the seriousness with which Dutch authorities have historically treated unregistered crypto-asset activity. DNB fined an unregistered crypto service provider EUR2,850,000 for offering crypto services in the Netherlands without the legally required Wwft-era DNB registration; the Rotterdam court later reduced this to EUR2,277,500 on review, but the underlying finding and the scale of the original penalty stand as a marker of DNB's enforcement posture carried forward into the MiCA-era registration and authorisation requirement now administered by the AFM.

Outlook

The exact national cut-off date the Uitvoeringswet verordening cryptoactiva set for MiCA grandfathering has not been independently verified at primary source this cycle, and confirmation of this detail, along with any further enforcement activity against providers that failed to transition within the shortened window, remains open to watch.

Crypto Licensing

Crypto-asset service providers operating in or from the Netherlands must hold AFM authorisation as a Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) under MiCA. The AFM issued the EU's first four CASP licences on 30 December 2024, the day MiCA's CASP provisions came into full application, giving the Netherlands an early and active domestic licensing track record within the EU framework rather than a newly-commencing regime still building its first cohort of licensees.

A genuine point of record conflict exists around the transitional arrangements for legacy crypto service providers previously registered with DNB under the Wwft anti-money-laundering framework rather than licensed under MiCA proper. Available sources disagree on whether the Netherlands applied a national transitional cutoff of 30 June 2025, materially shorter than the EU-wide default 18-month transitional window running to 1 July 2026, or whether the later EU-default date applied directly in the Dutch case. This is treated as a disputed claim rather than resolved fact, because the underlying sources conflict rather than simply being thin; a firm's compliance status during the window between the two candidate dates cannot be stated with confidence pending resolution to a primary AFM or DNB source.

Outlook

Resolving the exact NL-specific transitional cutoff date for legacy Wwft-registered CASPs is the single clearest open item in this module; the AFM's own primary licensing register or DNB's own transitional-guidance publication would be the natural next source to close the gap. Beyond that, the Netherlands' status as an early MiCA CASP-licensing jurisdiction, with four licences issued on MiCA's first day of application, is a structural fact likely to remain a stable reference point going forward.

Crypto Licensing

Any entity professionally providing crypto-asset services in the Netherlands must hold AFM authorisation as a crypto-asset service provider under MiCA Article 62. This authorisation requirement is now the sole gateway to lawful crypto-asset service provision in the country, following the close of the Dutch pre-MiCA transitional regime. Firms that had been registered with DNB under the earlier Wwft crypto-registration regime were permitted to continue operating without a full MiCAR licence only until 30 June 2025, when the transitional arrangement ended; the Netherlands ran the shortest such transition period in the EU, closing well ahead of the default deadline available to other member states under MiCA's Article 143(3).

The AFM issued some of the EU's first CASP licences on 30 December 2024, the date MiCA's full CASP authorisation regime took effect, to MoonPay, BitStaete, ZBD and Hidden Road. Bitvavo, a significant domestic exchange, announced its own AFM MiCA licence on 27 June 2025, roughly six months into the fully operational regime. This progression from an early licensing cohort to broader domestic-exchange authorisation indicates the AFM's licensing process has continued to process applications at a steady pace since the regime's full commencement.

DNB's role in this framework is narrower than AFM's: rather than licensing authority, DNB conducts prudential vetting of qualifying-holding owners for CASPs, a supervisory function distinct from AFM's conduct and authorisation role. This division, AFM as licensing and conduct authority, DNB as prudential vetter of ownership, represents one of the more clearly settled DNB/AFM splits among EEA member states implementing MiCA.

Outlook

With the transitional regime closed and the authority split between AFM and DNB settled, the Dutch crypto-licensing framework is structurally stable heading into the next cycle. The key development to track is the continued pace of CASP authorisations, particularly whether other significant domestic exchanges or service providers follow Bitvavo's path to full MiCA licensure, and whether AFM publishes any further guidance affecting the authorisation process for new applicants.

Crypto Licensing

The Netherlands' crypto-licensing regime is now defined by two layered authorisations rather than one. The baseline requirement remains MiCA CASP authorisation issued by the AFM, in force since the Netherlands issued the EU's first CASP licences on 30 December 2024; DNB retains prudential oversight and AML-related supervisory expectations alongside the AFM's conduct authorisation. Overlaid onto this baseline, as of 1 March 2026, CASPs transacting EMT-related payment services must additionally hold a PSD2 licence, following the end of a DNB/EBA transitional enforcement-restraint period that had applied since a June 2025 EBA Opinion clarified the PSD2/MiCA boundary. A CASP can avoid the additional PSD2 licence only by qualifying for a Wft exemption or by partnering with an already-authorised payment service provider; absent one of those two routes, dual authorisation is now the operative requirement rather than a future contingency.

This is a Confirmed, T1-sourced development directly from DNB, and it represents a tightening of the practical licensing perimeter for any CASP whose business model involves EMT-denominated payment flows — for example, facilitating payments or settlements in euro-pegged e-money tokens rather than purely custodial or trading services. A CASP that had structured its Dutch operations around MiCA authorisation alone, treating PSD2 as inapplicable during the restraint period, must now reassess whether its EMT-related activity brings it within PSD2 scope.

Separately, and at lower confidence, legacy enforcement from the pre-MiCA era continues to work through the Dutch courts. A crypto service provider was fined by DNB for historic unregistered operation under the former Wwft crypto-registration regime; the Rotterdam court upheld the underlying breach but reduced the penalty to EUR2,277,500, and DNB has appealed that reduction to the Trade and Industry Appeals Tribunal, with a hearing set for 29 January 2026. This is Probable-confidence reporting from a single T3 source, and it concerns a registration requirement that MiCA's CASP regime has since superseded for authorisation purposes — the litigation is about historic conduct, not the forward-looking licensing gate.

Outlook

Watch for DNB supervisory guidance clarifying precisely which CASP business models fall within the EMT-payment PSD2 trigger, and for the outcome of DNB's appeal in the Trade and Industry Appeals Tribunal following the January 2026 hearing, which will signal how DNB intends to treat historic Wwft-era non-compliance relative to the current MiCA-era regime.

Crypto Licensing

The Netherlands regulates crypto-asset service provision entirely through the EU Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR, Regulation (EU) 2023/1114), with no residual national licensing track. The Autoriteit Financiele Markten (AFM) confirms that the prior De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) VASP transitional regime, which had permitted registered virtual-asset service providers to continue operating while MiCAR's full application approached, ended on 30 June 2025. From that date, every entity providing crypto-asset services to Dutch clients has required a MiCAR authorisation from the AFM, which now functions as the Netherlands' primary crypto-asset service provider (CASP) licensing authority; DNB retains prudential competence over the sector rather than a parallel licensing role.

This settled architecture is already producing authorisation activity. BitPay obtained a MiCA CASP licence from the AFM on 16 July 2026, an authorisation that carries EU-wide passporting rights, allowing BitPay to offer its crypto-asset services across the EU on the strength of its single Dutch authorisation. For firms evaluating the Netherlands as an entry point into the EU crypto market, the AFM authorisation route is now the only route, and the passporting mechanic means a Dutch authorisation can function as an EU-wide market-access decision rather than a Netherlands-only one.

The transition away from the DNB transitional regime also has supervisory-architecture implications: rather than a single national regulator handling both registration and prudential oversight, as under the prior VASP regime, the Netherlands now operates a split model under MiCAR, AFM for authorisation and conduct, DNB for prudential and stablecoin-issuer supervision.

Outlook

With the transitional period now closed and the AFM licensing route fully operational, the coming cycle's crypto-licensing signal in the Netherlands is likely to come from the pace and profile of new CASP authorisations, such as the BitPay licence, rather than from further structural change to the licensing framework itself.