MiCA one year On: what fund selectors and private banks need from a crypto custodian
29 JUL, 2026
By Joanna Piwko from RankiaPro Europe
Europe's crypto market has crossed a threshold. As of 1 July 2026, the transitional period under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) has formally closed, meaning any provider offering crypto-asset services to EU clients without authorisation now sits outside the regulatory perimeter entirely. For fund selectors and private bankers who have spent years treating digital assets as too fragmented, too opaque, or too risky to touch, the question is no longer whether a regulatory framework exists — it does — but how to translate that framework into a workable due diligence checklist for choosing a custodian.
A single license, a single market
MiCA's most consequential innovation for institutional buyers is the European passport: authorisation granted by one national regulator now allows a provider to operate across all 27 member states. Jérémy Le Bescont, Editorial Manager at CoinShares, frames this as the end of a decade in which the sector outgrew the rules meant to govern it, calling the closure of the transitional window 'an apparently technical step, but one destined to mark a turning point.' For selectors, that consolidation matters practically: a custodian licensed in one jurisdiction no longer requires a patchwork of local approvals to serve clients across the bloc, which simplifies one of the thorniest parts of onboarding a new digital-asset provider.
What licensing actually guarantees — and what it doesn't
This is where due diligence needs precision. MiCA authorisation confirms that a custodian meets defined standards on governance, capital requirements, conflict-of-interest management, and — critically for custody specifically — the segregation of client assets from the firm's own balance sheet. These are the same categories of protection private banks already expect from a traditional custodian. But Le Bescont is explicit that licensing is not a proxy for investment safety: being authorised means an intermediary meets organisational and control requirements, not that the underlying crypto-assets are risk-free. For a selector's checklist, that distinction should be treated as two separate questions — is the custodian regulated, and separately, what is the risk profile of what it's holding — rather than one.
The gaps that still matter
A thorough custodian review also needs to account for what MiCA leaves out. Instruments already classified as financial instruments, including most crypto ETPs, continue to fall under MiFID II rather than MiCA. Genuinely decentralised protocols remain largely unaddressed, as do most NFTs and central bank digital currencies. For a private bank building a due diligence template, that means asking a prospective custodian to clearly map which of its services fall under which regime — MiCA, MiFID II, or neither — rather than assuming a single license covers the full product shelf. It's also worth checking how a custodian handles clients based in the UK or Switzerland, where the FCA and FINMA continue to apply their own regimes; a custodian operating cross-border still needs to demonstrate MiCA compliance whenever it markets into the EU.
Custody as the gateway to tokenisation
The case for getting custodian selection right now is reinforced by where the broader market is heading. Alexis Bienvenu, Fund Manager at La Financière de l'Échiquier (LFDE), points to tokenised assets as the fastest-growing exposure of the past two years, expanding 118% since the start of 2025 — even outpacing gold and silver — and notes that Larry Fink of BlackRock has compared the state of tokenisation today to the early internet in 1996: a vast promise still immature. Bienvenu's own read is that liquidity is the core appeal: tokenisation extends market access to assets — private debt, real estate, fund stakes, even commodities — that were previously illiquid or hard for individual investors to reach. Crucially, most of what is currently tokenised is not held on public retail exchanges but sits with regulated intermediaries, which puts custody arrangements squarely at the centre of how institutional allocators will access this growth. A custodian that can demonstrate readiness for tokenised real-world assets, not just spot crypto, is solving for where the market is going, not just where it is.
What to ask before signing
Taken together, the two commentaries point to a practical shortlist for selectors and private bankers evaluating a crypto custodian in the post-transitional-period market:
- Confirm the MiCA authorisation and the passporting jurisdiction, and check how long the provider has held it — early movers such as CoinShares Asset Management, authorised by the AMF in July 2025, have had more time to stress-test their compliance infrastructure.
- Ask for specifics on asset segregation and conflict-of-interest controls, not just confirmation that a license exists.
- Map which products sit under MiCA versus MiFID II versus neither, and confirm the custodian is transparent about that boundary.
- Probe cross-border marketing practices if clients span the UK, Switzerland, or non-EU jurisdictions.
- Assess readiness for tokenised real-world assets alongside native crypto, given where allocator demand is moving.
MiCA has not eliminated the volatility or the risk inherent in digital assets. What it has done is give fund selectors and private banks a genuine, harmonised basis for due diligence — provided they know which questions the license actually answers, and which ones it still leaves to them.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results, and crypto-assets and tokenised instruments can experience high volatility, including the risk of loss of invested capital. The opinions collected belong to Jérémy Le Bescont (CoinShares) and Alexis Bienvenu (La Financière de l'Échiquier), expressed at the time of their publication and subject to change without prior notice. Any investment decision should be based on the corresponding brochure and have independent professional advice.