The MiCA authorisation process for electronic money tokens is open across the EU. A small number of issuers have come through so far, with applications building across several jurisdictions. The UK's sterling-stablecoin regime is taking shape alongside it, with the regulatory framework established under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 and the detailed rules still being finalised.
The field is early. The firms that navigate authorisation first — in either regime — will have a meaningful influence over how the market settles around them. The work is less about the technology than about satisfying a regulator on governance, reserves and redemption, and then securing banking partners willing to support the model. Those relationships are harder to establish than the authorisation itself.
structuring the product to meet MiCA's requirements on governance, controls, capital and reserves from the outset, so the application reflects a product that can be authorised rather than one that needs to be redesigned mid-process.
designing the reserve, establishing how it is segregated, and helping you select and negotiate with a custodian.
advising on whether to distribute directly, through partners, or through scheme rails, and what each route requires commercially.
identifying which settlement rails the model depends on and what is required to access them.
structuring treasury operations and the fiat on- and off-ramp arrangements the model needs to function.
where both UK and EU authorisations are in scope, structuring the entity and licence stack to serve both markets without unnecessary duplication.
The licence application itself is handled as a defined project. The build-out and launch that follow are usually better suited to a retainer, since the work is continuous and the questions change week to week. Once the business is operating, some clients keep us on in an advisory capacity and others do not.
The first conversation takes half an hour, costs nothing and commits you to nothing. If there is nothing here for you, we will say so.
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