EU crypto compliance is entering a potentially turbulent phase after the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) transitional period ended on July 1, pushing more businesses—and more customers—into the post-transition licensing environment. Bruna Szego, chair of the EU’s anti–money laundering authority AMLA, warned that a wave of user migration could create operational and compliance strain for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) across the bloc.
Speaking during a briefing with the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs on Wednesday, Szego said providers should expect pressure as customers “rush to withdraw” and as licensed firms take on new users. Her comments underline a key risk for the next stage of EU crypto supervision: whether firms can keep anti–money laundering controls effective while business models and customer flows shift quickly.
Key takeaways
- AMLA chair Bruna Szego warned that end-of-transition customer movement could intensify operational and compliance pressure on EU crypto VASPs.
- As MiCA’s transitional period ended on July 1, firms that are not properly authorized were expected to wind down EU activities “immediately,” per ESMA guidance.
- AMLA has advised both licensed providers onboarding new customers and firms winding down to keep anti–money laundering controls functional through the transition period.
- AMLA says it will publish a report before year-end assessing money laundering risks and supervisory practices, including differences between EU member states.
- The authority is also expanding its blockchain analytics capabilities to strengthen oversight of crypto-asset service providers.
Why MiCA’s transition ending raises compliance stress
MiCA’s transitional period was designed to give the market time to adapt to a new regulatory framework. But with the clock now fully expired, Szego suggested the change could trigger behavior that compliance departments may not be able to absorb smoothly at scale.
In her remarks, she focused on two pressure points. First, entities winding down their EU operations may face customer withdrawal surges, which can strain internal processes and monitoring systems. Second, licensed crypto firms that remain active under MiCA may see onboarding volumes increase as they absorb users migrating away from less-compliant platforms.
The practical implication is straightforward: even if firms are formally compliant, rapid customer migration can still challenge the day-to-day execution of know-your-customer and transaction monitoring controls—especially if migration happens faster than expected.
AMLA’s advisory note and the compliance balancing act
Ahead of the July 1 deadline, AMLA published an advisory note highlighting money laundering risks linked to the end of the transitional period. According to the advisory guidance, firms should take targeted steps depending on where they sit in the transition—either scaling down EU activities or onboarding customers within the licensed perimeter.
Szego emphasized that AMLA expects providers to maintain efficient compliance procedures during the transition rather than treating the changeover as a mere administrative milestone. For winding-down firms, the focus is on ensuring controls do not degrade during periods of change. For licensed providers, the concern is that adding customers rapidly should not dilute anti-money laundering safeguards.
AMLA’s positioning also suggests a supervisory priority: AMLA is effectively drawing attention to “transition risk”—the idea that business continuity and compliance discipline can be hardest during periods of structural adjustment.
ESMA’s wind-down expectation after the deadline
MiCA’s end-state requirement is that crypto asset service providers must be licensed to keep serving EU customers after the transitional period. The deadline was paired with expectations for what unauthorized providers must do next.
Cointelegraph previously reported on the July 1 transition ending, citing ESMA’s view that service providers still not authorized by then must take “immediate” steps to wind down their EU activities. That regulatory posture matters for Szego’s concern because wind-down periods can produce concentrated customer actions—such as withdrawals—that may test operational readiness.
In other words, even if the licensing rule is clear on paper, the market’s adjustment phase can create real-world friction points that AMLA intends to monitor closely.
What AMLA plans to publish—and what to watch next
AMLA chair Bruna Szego said the authority will publish a report before the end of the year covering money laundering risks in the crypto sector and describing supervisory practices across the EU. She added that AMLA is expanding blockchain analytics capabilities to improve its ability to oversee crypto-asset service providers.
The report is also expected to assess how national authorities supervise crypto-asset service providers and highlight differences in supervisory approaches across member states. For market participants, this matters because uneven enforcement can translate into uneven compliance expectations and timelines—particularly during periods of rapid migration and customer churn.
Szego indicated AMLA intends to use the findings to coordinate follow-up work with national regulators where needed, aiming for more consistent anti-money laundering oversight throughout the bloc.
For investors, traders, and users, the main question for the coming months is whether licensed platforms can maintain strong onboarding and monitoring standards as they absorb new customers—and whether winding-down firms can handle withdrawal waves without compliance controls becoming secondary. AMLA’s year-end assessment and its growing analytics focus will likely determine how regulators refine expectations for the post-transition phase.
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