When most people hear crypto white paper, they think of Satoshi Nakamoto’s nine-page document, or an ICO-era pitch deck dressed up in technical language. MiCA has a different definition, and the gap between the popular understanding and the legal reality is where many compliance failures begin.

MiCA Decoded is a 12-article weekly series for Bitcoin.com News, co-authored by LegalBison’s Co-Founding and Managing Directors: Aaron Glauberman, Viktor Juskin and Sabir Alijev. LegalBison advises crypto and FinTech companies on MiCA licensing, CASP and VASP applications, and regulatory structuring across Europe and beyond.

Under MiCA, a white paper is a mandatory legal disclosure instrument. Its closest analogy in traditional finance is a…