Reverse Solicitation Under MiCAR – What Third-country Providers Need To Bear In Mind

With the expiry of the final national transition periods for the application of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR) on 1 July 2026, the EU-wide harmonised legal framework for crypto-asset services will become fully applicable. In principle, third-country providers may only provide crypto-asset services to clients in the European Economic Area (EEA) if they are authorised as Crypto-Asset Service Providers (CASP).

Against this backdrop, Article 61 of MiCAR is coming increasingly into focus. This provision sets out the conditions under which third-country providers may, in exceptional cases, provide crypto-asset services to clients in the EEA without a MiCAR authorisation, provided that the initiative for the service in question originates exclusively from the client. This exception is known in financial markets law as ‘reverse solicitation’.