Snagging a Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) license to operate in Europe is great, but, alone, it won’t be enough to turn a profit, according to Ben Zhou, the CEO of Bybit, one of the largest cryptocurrency trading platforms.
MiCA doesn’t cover the full range of products, such as derivatives and tokenized assets, needed to be profitable, Zhou said in an interview. For those, companies also need a MiFID II (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive) license and an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license.
“With the current MiCA framework, you can only do fiat-to-crypto, crypto-to-crypto,” Zhou said. “There are many elements of a profitable business you cannot do, so even as a MiCA holder — unless you’re Kraken or BItpanda or Bitvivo,…




