MiCA and crypto holds: what Coinbase and Binance must now do

The Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA, Reg. 2023/1114) applies fully since 30 December 2024. Crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) like Coinbase, Bitvavo, or regulated stablecoin issuers need an explicit EU authorisation.

With authorisation come hard duties: segregated client crypto custody, transparent withdrawal rules, formal risk management standards, and - importantly - supervisory link to the relevant national authority (in Germany: BaFin).

Important: Binance has no MiCA licence and must wind down or restructure EU activities after a transition period. That changes the levers - but doesn't weaken them, it shifts them to other regulatory layers.

MiCA Art. 75 requires licensed CASPs to keep client crypto strictly segregated. That's not merely a balance-sheet matter - it is a recoverable claim by the client against the provider.

On unlawful hold you have not only a contractual recovery claim but a property-law recovery claim - making it insolvency-proof and significantly stronger in enforcement.

With providers like Coinbase under EU supervision, the BaFin complaint is often the fastest lever. A supervisor finding an Art. 75 MiCA breach can intervene immediately and sharply.

AML duties are real - but proportionate. Wanting to withdraw €1,000 doesn't require disclosing your parents' banking history back to 2010. Crypto platforms often overshoot drastically on source-of-funds requirements.

Clean SoF docs you should provide: bank statements evidencing crypto purchases; salary or profit evidence showing fund origin; for trading gains, transaction history of predecessor wallets.

If the platform continues to block despite complete SoF, it is itself in breach - then the BaFin complaint becomes relevant. We often combine that with a lawyer letter under deadline and a litigation threat at the consumer's home court.

Unlawful holds create several damage categories: default damages under § 286 BGB; lost trading gains where concretely demonstrable; price losses during the hold phase.

The last is especially interesting: if 5 BTC were blocked at €60,000 and price falls to €40,000 during the hold, the difference is concretely quantifiable damage - the platform is liable under § 280 BGB.

Requirement: complete documentation. Save the hold trigger, correspondence, submitted SoF docs, all platform access attempts during the hold. The better documented, the higher the enforceable claim.