News

AML Tallinn 2026 closes — crypto and virtual asset oversight ahead of MiCA deadline (6 May 2026)

Nordic-Baltic AML / FinCrime & Tech conference in Tallinn, Lithuania's sector contraction and Latvia's pre-licensing pipeline — a snapshot less than two months before the 1 July MiCA deadline

Toms Ābeltiņš

7 May 20267 min read

On 6 May the Nordic-Baltic AML / FinCrime & Tech Conference 2026 closed in Tallinn with a full second-day afternoon session on crypto and virtual assets. At the same time, Lithuania's crypto sector continues to contract under the new MiCA enforcement regime, Latvia's pre-licensing pipeline is growing, and Norway has invoked the full transition window through 30 June.

Lead story for 6 May: AML Tallinn 2026 closes with a crypto deep-dive

Yesterday, on 6 May 2026, the Nordic-Baltic AML / FinCrime & Tech Conference 2026 (also known as AML Tallinn 2026) closed in Tallinn, having run from 5 to 6 May at Swissôtel Tallinn. Under the theme "Navigating the Future of Financial Integrity: AML, FinCrime, Technology and Global Risks", the event has become one of the headline annual meeting points for regulators and the financial industry across the Nordic-Baltic region. This year's agenda integrated discussions on FinTech, instant payments, crypto and digital assets, AI-driven risk analytics and fraud prevention, with the second-day afternoon devoted specifically to a deep-dive on crypto and virtual assets.

Day one focused on the evolution of the EU AML architecture and the supervisory role of AMLA (the Anti-Money Laundering Authority), regulatory priorities, secondary sanctions policy and cross-border intelligence sharing. Day two shifted to financial-crime prevention and enforcement — fraud schemes, instant-payments risk, investigations, asset recovery, sanctions enforcement and public–private cooperation, alongside crypto-asset and blockchain intelligence. Speakers included Rainer Osanik, Head of the Financial Information and Intelligence Policy Department at the Estonian Ministry of Finance, and Kilvar Kessler, former Chair of the Management Board of Finantsinspektsioon.

The timing was no accident: the conference took place less than two months before the end of the MiCA transitional period on 1 July 2026, after which crypto-asset service providers without a full CASP licence may no longer operate in the EU.

Context: the MiCA deadline is approaching

After 1 July 2026, any entity providing crypto-asset services to EU clients without MiCA authorisation can no longer rely on transitional arrangements, and national regulators have been instructed to take enforcement action. ESMA reiterated in April that last-minute authorisation applications should be subject to heightened supervisory scrutiny and that providers without a licence must implement a structured wind-down plan to minimise client harm.

Industry commentary (such as Bybit CEO Ben Zhou's remarks to CoinDesk on 26 April) emphasises that a MiCA licence alone is not enough for exchanges to offer the full product range in Europe: derivatives require a MiFID II licence, and stablecoin-style payment instruments require an EMI (e-money institution) licence. This means consolidation after 1 July will affect not just smaller players but also global market participants who must redesign their European product portfolios.

Lithuania: a dramatic sectoral contraction

According to Fintech in Baltic and aggregated industry data, Lithuania's crypto sector has shrunk substantially since the end of the MiCA transitional period on 31 December 2025 and the start of the national enforcement regime on 1 January 2026. By the end of January 2026, the Bank of Lithuania had issued only three CASP licences — a stark contrast with 324 registered crypto companies at the end of 2024 and roughly 850 players at the end of 2022. During 2025, the Bank of Lithuania received only around 102 MiCA licence applications, meaning fewer than 10% of previously registered firms formally applied. The Bank of Lithuania's warning against Binance UAB for unauthorised provision of derivatives services also remains in force.

Vilnius's positioning is explicit: a transition from an "easy-access" licensing hub to a "quality-over-quantity" jurisdiction with high standards of transparency and investor protection. This aligns with the full enforcement regime that started on 1 January 2026, under which the Bank of Lithuania and the Financial Crime Investigation Service (FCIS) have warned of fines, site blocks and, in some cases, criminal liability for circumvention of the licensed regime.

Latvia: a growing pre-licensing pipeline

In Latvia, according to government and Fintech in Baltic publications, by the end of January 2026 there were five additional MiCA licence applications formally submitted, on top of the previously licensed BlockBen (3 December 2025) and Nexdesk (second half of December 2025) — the first two CASP licences issued by Latvijas Banka. A further 12 companies are in the pre-licensing phase, and over 100 international players are actively evaluating Latvia as their EU base. Crypto and blockchain make up roughly 13% of Latvia's fintech ecosystem, which currently counts around 130 fintech companies — about half the size of Lithuania's or Estonia's.

In substance, Latvia's approach remains the same as in earlier status updates: free pre-licensing consultations, a formal Innovation Hub, and an attempt to position itself as the "friendliest" jurisdiction inside the EU for global players seeking a structured path out of unregulated operations before 1 July.

Estonia: end of the VASP regime approaches

In Estonia, Finantsinspektsioon remains the sole competent authority for CASP licensing through 1 July, and VASP licences issued under the previous FIU regime expire on that exact date without automatic conversion — anyone wishing to continue operations must file a full application with Finantsinspektsioon. The updated 2026 capital requirements remain in place: EUR 100,000 for Class 2 services, EUR 150,000 for trading platforms, and EUR 250,000 for virtual-currency transfers. LHV Bank continues to offer crypto trading in its mobile app via Bitstamp infrastructure.

Norway and Finland: end of transition and a two-speed Europe

In Norway, Finanstilsynet formally extended the national transitional period in April through 30 June 2026, using the maximum window allowed under MiCA Article 143(3). The first MiCA-licensed CASP in Norway remains AK Jensen Norway AS (licence effective from 2 February) — a traditional financial-services provider with AIFMD and MiFID licences. Norway's largest local crypto exchanges — Firi, NBX and others — are still in Finanstilsynet's application processing queue. Industry media also report internal management changes at Firi since the start of 2026: Chief Operating Officer Marte Eriksen Skoglund is stepping down.

In Finland, FIN-FSA (Finanssivalvonta) has long since completed its transitional phase (30 June 2025 — one of the shortest in the EU) and applies the full CASP regime. Finland's first CASP — Coinmotion — received its full licence in July 2025, followed by Tesseract and Bittimaatti. In April, Finanssivalvonta reminded the market that ESMA's guidelines on the assessment of knowledge and competence for CASP staff (ESMA35-24871704-2922) will start to apply on 28 July 2026 to all licensed CASPs, not just new applicants. In Norway, the same guidelines apply in parallel from 13 March.

Global exchanges' EU positioning

Bybit EU, via the MiCAR licence issued by Austria's FMA, continues to provide regulated services across 29 EEA countries. OKX is active for EEA clients (including Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland) with Spot Margin trading. Binance operates in the EU through its Lithuanian entity, while facing the Bank of Lithuania's warning and industry speculation about evaluating alternative member-state entry options. In Sweden, the main institutional gateway remains Nasdaq Stockholm — the Bitwise suite of seven crypto ETPs in SEK denomination and the Nordea Bitcoin tracking ETP.

Summary for market participants

Less than two months remain until 1 July — and that is reflected both in conference agendas and in official regulator communications. The fact that AML Tallinn 2026 devoted an entire afternoon of day two to crypto and virtual assets shows that Nordic-Baltic regulators no longer treat crypto as a fringe topic but as a central element of financial integrity. The recommendations for market participants remain technically unchanged: ensure that the chosen service provider is on the ESMA Interim MiCA register or has already obtained a full CASP licence; track the official registers of national regulators; and for licensed CASPs — prepare in good time to implement ESMA's knowledge-and-competence guidelines on 28 July.

Norriwire Briefing