OpenPayd, a London-based payments-infrastructure company, has obtained authorization under the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, allowing it to provide stablecoin services across the European Economic Area, the company said.
The license was granted by the Malta Financial Services Authority and registers OpenPayd as a crypto-asset service provider, or CASP. Under MiCA's passporting mechanism, that single authorization lets the firm operate throughout the EEA without seeking approval country by country. The permission covers fiat-to-stablecoin on-ramping and off-ramping — converting traditional currencies such as euros and dollars into stablecoins and back — alongside related crypto services.
What MiCA is
MiCA is the EU's comprehensive rulebook for crypto-assets, establishing uniform market rules across the bloc for the first time. It governs disclosure, authorization and supervision, and sorts tokens into categories including e-money tokens, or EMTs — stablecoins that reference a single official currency, the European Securities and Markets Authority explains. A stablecoin is a crypto token designed to hold a steady value, typically by being backed one-to-one with cash or low-risk reserves. "Embedded finance" — OpenPayd's core business — means building banking and payment functions directly into other companies' products through software.
The timing is pointed. ESMA says firms that were already offering crypto services under national laws before late 2024 may keep operating only until July 1, 2026, or until their MiCA application is decided. OpenPayd's approval landed just ahead of that cutoff, after which unauthorized providers face removal from EU-regulated markets.
A fast-growing firm
OpenPayd was founded in London in 2018 and processes more than $240 billion in annualized transaction volume for over 1,100 corporate clients, including Kraken, eToro and OKX, the company said. It launched stablecoin infrastructure roughly a year ago, offering businesses a single interface to manage fiat currencies and digital assets. "Stablecoins are rapidly becoming part of mainstream financial infrastructure," chief executive Iana Dimitrova said.
A wider licensing wave
The approval fits a broader rush of MiCA licensing. By early 2026, roughly a dozen stablecoin issuers had secured EU authorization across France, the Netherlands, Finland, Malta, Luxembourg and Germany. Circle was the first major issuer to clear MiCA, receiving a French license in 2024 covering both its dollar token USDC and euro token EURC. By contrast, Tether — issuer of the largest dollar stablecoin, USDT — has not pursued MiCA authorization and has been delisted for EEA retail users by several exchanges.
That divergence reflects an EU push to cultivate a regulated, largely euro-denominated stablecoin ecosystem, even as dollar-pegged tokens dominate global volumes. Malta, where OpenPayd was licensed, has emerged as one venue for such approvals; OKX and Gemini also hold MFSA MiCA licenses.
Separately, OpenPayd has proposed a U.S. public listing through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company that would value the combined business at about $1.1 billion and list it on Nasdaq, with a close targeted for late 2026 — a transaction still subject to approval.
