If your crypto app started behaving differently this summer — new warnings, restricted features, or a polite notice that services were changing — the reason was probably a date: 1 July 2026. That is when France’s transitional period under the EU’s MiCA regulation came to an end, and with it the era of platforms serving French customers under lighter national rules.
From PSAN registration to CASP authorisation
France was ahead of most of Europe: for years it ran its own regime under which digital asset service providers registered as PSANs with the AMF, the national markets regulator. MiCA replaced that patchwork with a single European status — the CASP, or crypto-asset service provider. During the transition, existing French registrations still counted. Since 1 July 2026 they no longer do: to serve French users a platform needs a full CASP authorisation from the AMF, or an authorisation from another EU country that it has passported into France.
What changed for users
- Some platforms decided the cost of authorisation was not worth it and exited the French market or restricted French accounts.
- Compliant platforms now advertise their AMF or EU licence status prominently — it is a selling point.
- Products can differ by country: a feature visible to a user elsewhere in Europe may be switched off in France.
- Transfers from a French bank account work most smoothly with authorised platforms.
Why regulators drew the line
Authorisation is not paperwork for its own sake. A CASP licence comes with requirements on safeguarding client assets, handling complaints, managing conflicts of interest and keeping the firm financially sound. The deadline also flushed out a long-standing grey zone in which offshore platforms marketed aggressively to French savers while sitting outside any European supervisor’s reach.
Check before you deposit
The practical lesson is simple: before sending money to any platform, verify its status on the AMF’s public register of authorised providers, or confirm the EU licence it is passporting. An unlicensed platform is not automatically a scam, but if it disappears with your balance, you will have far fewer protections and a much harder recovery path. In the MiCA era, “is it authorised?” is the first question a French crypto user should ask — before fees, before features, before anything else.
