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The grandfather clock has run out. As of July 2, France’s homegrown crypto licensing regime, the one built under the loi Pacte back when the country was ahead of the pack, is officially history. The EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation now governs every provider on French soil, no exceptions.
The AMF confirmed the handover in a July 6 statement. And the French regulator is walking away from the transition with a different job than the one it started with.
The Loi Pacte Era Is Over
MiCA came into force for crypto-asset service providers on December 30, 2024, setting a single EU-wide rulebook with operational, organizational, and prudential requirements meant to cap investor risk and protect market integrity.
Firms already operating under national regimes got a runway to convert. In France, that meant PSAN-registered players had until July 1, 2026 to secure a full MiCA license. That window is now shut.
From here, the European framework applies to all actors without distinction. Offering crypto services anywhere in the EU requires MiCA authorization, full stop.
France Ranks Second In The EU
The numbers give a sense of scale. The AMF says France has authorized 31 providers so far, with a handful more authorizations being finalized.
Across the EU, 283 providers have secured MiCA authorization. That puts France in second place by number of licensed crypto-asset service providers based in the bloc, a position the AMF is keen to advertise after 18 months of processing applications.
What MiCA Adds On Top Of Loi Pacte
The loi Pacte was genuinely ahead of its time, but it asked for less. At a minimum, it required an anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing setup. MiCA raises the bar across several fronts:
- Conduct rules governing how providers treat clients.
- Market abuse prevention obligations.
- IT and cybersecurity requirements.
- Custody standards for safeguarding both crypto-assets and investor funds.
- Complaint-handling procedures for retail users.
The through-line is investor protection. MiCA takes the light-touch national model and bolts on the machinery of a mature financial regulation.
The AMF’s New Job Is Supervision
Getting firms licensed was the easy part. The AMF now shifts from gatekeeper to supervisor, the role EU legislators handed national regulators under MiCA.
That means ongoing oversight of whether authorized providers actually meet their professional and conduct obligations, not just a one-time approval. The regulator says it will keep reviewing new license applications with the same rigor while ramping up this supervisory function.
For licensed firms, the message is clear. The audit never really ends now.
Unlicensed Firms Must Wind Down
The harder story is what happens to everyone who didn’t make the cut. Following ESMA’s June 23 communication, the AMF says it will work with ESMA and other national authorities to monitor the orderly wind-down of providers that failed to obtain MiCA authorization, with client protection as the stated top priority.
The first casualties are already visible. The AMF deregistered AUTOMATA France SAS as a digital-asset service provider effective June 30, right as the deadline closed in.
The regulator also flagged a warning to licensed firms picking up clients transferred from these wind-downs: run the required regulatory checks, especially AML and counter-terrorist-financing due diligence, before onboarding anyone.
What This Means For Traders
The AMF’s advice to users is blunt. Stick to providers authorized to operate in the EU, because they’re the only ones bound by MiCA. And there’s a catch worth remembering: MiCA has no equivalence regime with third countries.
So an offshore platform waving a foreign license does not get a pass into the EU market. For French and European traders, the safe list just got a lot more defined, and a lot shorter. The era of national crypto rules is done. What replaces it is heavier, harmonized, and watching.