MiCA explainer

Estonian CASP Licences 17.08.2026: Slow Progress

Explainer: why Estonia, historically the largest Baltic crypto licensing jurisdiction, is cautiously issuing MiCA CASP authorisations - process, deadlines, capital requirements, and what it means for users in the region.

Toms Ābeltiņš

17 August 20267 min read

There have been no clearly dateable new developments in our segment (exchanges/CASPs, hardware wallets, cards, tax tools) in the last 24 hours. Therefore, today we offer an explanation on an ongoing topic: Estonia's slow pace of CASP authorisation following the end of the MiCA transition period on 1st July - the process, deadlines, capital requirements, and its significance for Baltic and Nordic users.

Monday, 17th August 2026. This is an explainer (Watchlist/Explainer) format publication, not a daily news review. In the last 24-48 hours, there have been no clearly dateable, significant new developments in our covered segment - crypto exchanges and CASPs, hardware wallets, crypto cards, and tax tools serving the Baltics (LV, LT, EE) and Northern Europe (FI, SE, NO, DK). Therefore, today, instead of repackaging old events as fresh news, we offer an in-depth, accurately dated look at an ongoing regional topic: why Estonia, historically the largest Baltic crypto licensing jurisdiction, is cautiously and slowly issuing MiCA CASP authorisations.

Why an explainer today, not daily news

Dating hygiene is a fundamental principle of this series: an event can only be presented as 'yesterday's news' if its actual publication or effective date is within the last 24-48 hours. Currently, there is no such event in our four categories. Recent fresh, precisely dateable developments - the Swedish exchange Safello's Q2 report (7th August), ESMA's fourth update to the MiCA register to 321 CASPs (data as of early August), and the Coldcard hardware wallet incident (2nd-4th August) - were already covered in our 12th, 14th, and 9th August editions, respectively, so we will not repeat them here as new. Instead, we take the opportunity to provide context on what is happening more quietly but has a greater long-term impact on the region: the pace of national CASP authorisations.

Estonia: from the largest VASP jurisdiction to a cautious CASP issuer

Historically, Estonia was Europe's gateway for crypto licences. Under the old Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) regime, the number of registered companies in the country ran into the hundreds, and many foreign operators chose Tallinn as their entry point into the EU market. MiCA has deliberately changed this landscape. The old VASP regime no longer grants the right to serve EU clients, and has been replaced by a full Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) authorisation process, which in Estonia is managed by Finantsinspektsioon (the Financial Supervisory Authority).

This has resulted in a stark contrast between the earlier mass of registered companies and the small number of actually authorised CASPs today. According to publicly available summaries, as of mid-2026, the number of CASP authorisations issued in Estonia remains small, with a large proportion of applications still under careful review. By comparison, in neighbouring Lithuania, approximately six CASP authorisations had been issued by mid-2026, and there too, the proportion of rejected applications has been high. This is not an indicator of failure, but a consequence of deliberate quality filtering - regulators prefer to issue fewer authorisations with a higher level of compliance, rather than repeating the 'empty shell' problem of the old VASP regime.

What the Estonian CASP process looks like today

Finantsinspektsioon's public conditions provide a clear understanding of what an applicant faces. From 18th March 2026, applications must be submitted via the authority's electronic application portal. The state fee for authorisation review is a flat 3,000 euros. Procedural deadlines are clearly defined: completeness check of the application takes up to 25 working days from receipt, while substantive review takes up to 40 working days for crypto-asset services and up to 60 working days for issuers of asset-referenced tokens (ART). Each of these deadlines can be suspended for up to 20 working days if the authority requests additional information.

In practice, this means that even a formally well-prepared application can take several months from submission to decision, and incomplete or poorly documented applications take significantly longer. Deficiencies repeatedly highlighted by supervisory authorities in other Baltic jurisdictions - unclear shareholder and source of funds structure, weak governance, and insufficient anti-money laundering/counter-terrorist financing (AML/CTF) documentation - also apply to the Estonian context and are the main factor prolonging the process.

Capital requirements: why the threshold is not low

A crucial element of CASP authorisation is the prudential (own funds) requirements set out in MiCA Article 67 and Annex IV, which are uniform across the EU and therefore do not differ in Estonia from other Member States. The minimum permanent capital threshold depends on the class of services provided: for Class 1 (including reception and transmission of orders, advice, execution, placing, transfers) - 50,000 euros; for Class 2 (including custody and administration, exchange for funds or other crypto-assets) - 125,000 euros; for Class 3 (operating a trading platform) - 150,000 euros. Own funds must be the greater of the relevant fixed threshold and one quarter of the previous year's fixed overheads.

These requirements, along with governance, segregation of custody, and compliance obligations, are what filter out small or undercapitalised entities. This selection process explains why the number of registered companies fell from hundreds to a few actually authorised CASPs.

What this means for Baltic and Nordic users

Firstly, a small number of authorised permits in a country does not mean a lack of services for the user. The fundamental principle of MiCA is 'passporting': a CASP authorisation issued in one EU Member State grants the right to provide services across the entire EU/EEA. An Estonian user can legally use, for example, an operator authorised in Lithuania or Latvia, and vice versa. Therefore, the regional picture should be assessed as a whole, not country by country.

Secondly, the jurisdiction of authorisation is important for supervision and complaints: in the event of a dispute or insolvency, the national authority that authorised the operator is decisive. Therefore, before entrusting funds, it is worth checking not only whether the operator is in the ESMA MiCA register, but also in which country and for which class of services the authorisation was issued.

Thirdly, Estonia's cautious pace aligns with a broader regional trend, which we covered in our 14th August explainer: the growth of the register in recent updates is driven not by crypto exchanges, but by traditional financial institutions that can join under MiCA Article 60 with a simplified notification. For Baltic and Nordic users, this means an increasing choice between specialised exchanges and banking channels.

Watchlist (ongoing stories, not fresh news)

These points are not news from the last 24 hours; we keep them under observation with precise previous dates.

Coldcard (Coinkite) incident: we followed the depletion of funds caused by hardware wallet seed entropy errors in our daily reviews on 2nd-4th August and in our weekly review on 9th August. The regional conclusion remains unchanged - the risk is tied to specific Coldcard models and firmware versions, not to any Baltic or Nordic platform; affected seeds require migration to a new key generated with secure entropy. There is no new, dateable information this week.

Crypto card segment: Kraken launched a Mastercard network debit card in the EEA and the UK on 14th July with up to 2% cashback in Bitcoin; the product is formally available to Baltic and Nordic EEA users, but a separate regional rollout has not yet been announced. There is no new information this week.

Swedish exchange segment: We are monitoring the rejection of Goobit/BTCX's MiCA application (2nd July) for a possible appeal or re-application; there is no new decision this week.

Next ESMA register update: We are watching to see if any new Baltic or Nordic companies, including Estonian CASPs, appear in upcoming weekly updates that would change the regional map.

Practical conclusions and next checkpoints

Firstly, Estonia's small number of authorised CASPs is a sign of a quality filter, not a lack of availability; thanks to the MiCA passport, the range of services for users in the region remains broad. Secondly, before choosing an operator, check its actual status in the ESMA MiCA register and find out which national authority authorised it and for which class of services. Thirdly, expect the list of Estonian CASPs to grow gradually and with a delay - procedural deadlines (25 + 40/60 working days with possible pauses) mean that even applications submitted in spring may only reach a decision in autumn.

We will continue the series in a daily review format as soon as a clearly dateable new event appears in our segment. Until then, an honest explanation is better than repackaging old events.

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