Kraken, Bitvavo, Bybit EU, OKX EU, Coinbase, Bitpanda, Gate EU and Bitstamp all hold MiCA licences. Compare who regulates them, what EU customers can trade and what it costs.
| Exchange | EU coins | EU spot feesmaker/taker | EU futures | EU futures feesmaker/taker | EU max leverage | Regulator | Availability |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. KrakenVisit | 679 | 0.4% / 0.8% | 0.02% / 0.05% | 10× | Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) | — | |
| 2. BitvavoVisit | 427 | 0.15% / 0.25% | — | — | Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) | — | |
| 3. Bybit EUVisit | 108 | 0.25% / 0.25% | — | — | Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) | — | |
| 4. OKX EUVisit | 290 | 0.1% / 0.2% | 0.02% / 0.05% | 10× | Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) | — | |
| 5. CoinbaseVisit | 397 | 0.25% / 0.5% | 0.05% / 0.05% | 10× | Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) | — | |
| 6. BitpandaVisit | 575 | 1.49% / 1.49% | — | — | Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) | — | |
| 7. Gate EU | 195 | 0.1% / 0.1% | — | — | Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) | — | |
| 8. BitstampVisit | 118 | 0.3% / 0.4% | — | 10× | Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) | — |
| Exchange | EU products | Availability |
|---|---|---|
| 1. KrakenVisit | Spot, Margin, Futures, Staking, Card | — |
| 2. BitvavoVisit | Spot, Staking, Earn / lending | — |
| 3. Bybit EUVisit | Spot, Margin, Earn / lending, Trading bots, Card | — |
| 4. OKX EUVisit | Spot, Margin, Futures, Staking, Earn / lending, Trading bots, Card | — |
| 5. CoinbaseVisit | Spot, Futures, Staking | — |
| 6. BitpandaVisit | Spot, Margin, Staking, Card | — |
| 7. Gate EU | Spot, Staking | — |
| 8. BitstampVisit | Spot, Futures, Staking, Earn / lending | — |
| Exchange | Score | Founded | Headquarters | EU company | CEO | KYC | Availability |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. KrakenVisit | 9.3 | 2011 | San Francisco, USA | Payward Europe Solutions Limited | David Ripley | Required | — |
| 2. BitvavoVisit | 8.9 | 2018 | Amsterdam | Bitvavo B.V. | Mark Nuvelstijn | Required | — |
| 3. Bybit EUVisit | 7.6 | 2025 | Vienna, Austria | Bybit EU GmbH | Georg Harer | Required | — |
| 4. OKX EUVisit | 7.9 | 2018 | Sliema, Malta | OKX Europe Limited | Erald Ghoos | Required | — |
| 5. CoinbaseVisit | 7.7 | 2012 | Remote | Coinbase Luxembourg S.A. | Brian Armstrong | Required | — |
| 6. BitpandaVisit | 6.4 | 2014 | Vienna | Bitpanda GmbH | Eric Demuth | Required | — |
| 7. Gate EU | n/a | 2025 | Msida, Malta | Gate Technology Limited | Giovanni Cunti | Required | — |
| 8. BitstampVisit | 7.2 | 2011 | Luxembourg | Bitstamp Europe S.A. | Jean-Baptiste Graftieau | Required | — |
The your country column is checked live against each exchange's restricted-country list.
MiCA, the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, has applied to crypto service providers since December 2024, and the last national transition periods ended on 1 July 2026. Companies offering crypto trading or custody to people in the EU now need a MiCA licence. A licence from one national regulator can be passported to the rest of the European Economic Area, so a single authorisation lets an exchange serve customers from Lisbon to Helsinki.
Each exchange below holds that licence. They differ in what you can trade, how you fund your account and what it costs. Several also offer futures or staking, which MiCA doesn’t cover, so each review names the company that provides those products.
Kraken serves EU customers through Payward Europe Solutions Limited, which the Central Bank of Ireland authorised under MiCA in June 2025. The licence is passported to the rest of the European Economic Area, so customers across the EU deal with the same Irish-regulated company.
The spot market lists 679 assets. Standard Kraken Pro fees are 0.4% maker and 0.8% taker, which isn't the cheapest in this list, although rates fall as your trading volume grows. You can deposit euros by SEPA, card, PayPal, Apple Pay or Google Pay.
Eligible EEA customers can also trade futures and perpetual contracts, but those come from a different company: Payward Europe Digital Solutions (CY) Limited, which is regulated in Cyprus under MiFID II rather than MiCA. As with other MiFID II derivatives, expect a knowledge and experience check before you can open positions. Leverage for EU customers goes up to 10x.
Kraken also offers staking, a debit card and tokenised US stocks called xStocks. Kraken itself says staking isn't a regulated financial product, so the MiCA licence doesn't cover it. The exchange publishes proof of reserves. In 2024, a security firm exploited a bug to withdraw about $3 million from Kraken's treasury; the money was returned and no customer funds were affected.
Bitvavo B.V. received its MiCA authorisation from the Dutch regulator, the AFM, in June 2025. The licence covers custody, running the trading platform and crypto transfers, and it's passported to the rest of the EEA. Bitvavo only serves European customers, and its app is built around euro accounts.
You can trade 427 assets against the euro. Standard fees are 0.15% maker and 0.25% taker, with lower rates at higher trading volumes. Deposits work by SEPA, iDEAL, Bancontact, EPS, card, PayPal and Apple Pay, and SEPA and iDEAL deposits are free. Withdrawals go out by SEPA or as crypto.
Bitvavo sticks to spot trading, so there are no futures or margin products. It also offers Flex and Fixed staking and a lending product, but Bitvavo points out that these aren't regulated under MiCA. Treat any rewards as a separate risk from your trading balance.
Bitvavo publishes proof of reserves and keeps most funds in cold storage. Accounts support two-factor authentication, withdrawal address whitelisting and a withdrawal password.
Bybit EU GmbH is based in Vienna and was authorised by Austria's Financial Market Authority in May 2025. It launched bybit.eu that July as a separate platform with its own website and app, and new EEA customers now sign up there instead of on Bybit's global site. The licence covers every EEA country except Malta.
The licence covers exchanging crypto for euros or other crypto, custody and transfers. There are 108 spot assets, with standard fees of 0.25% maker and 0.25% taker, and spot margin goes up to 10x. There are no futures or options. A sister company has applied for a MiFID II licence to add derivatives, but until it's granted, Bybit EU remains a spot platform.
Funding is its strongest point. Bybit EU accepts SEPA, bank transfers, cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, iDEAL, BLIK, MB WAY and Zen, and pays out by SEPA, PayPal, Zen or to the Bybit Card. It also offers trading bots, fixed-rate Earn products and recurring buys.
Identity verification is required before trading. Bybit EU and Gate EU are the newest platforms in this ranking, so they have the shortest track records.
OKX EU is run by OKX Europe Limited in Malta, which the MFSA authorised under MiCA in January 2025. That made it one of the first large exchanges with the licence, and it's passported across the EEA. EEA customers sign up on OKX's separate EU site, my.okx.com, not on the global platform.
Spot trading runs under the MiCA licence, with standard fees of 0.1% maker and 0.2% taker. EU customers can't trade USDT, because MiCA only allows stablecoins whose issuer is authorised in the EU; USDC and euro pairs take its place. The product range is narrower than on OKX's global site.
Derivatives come from a separate company, OKX Europe Markets Ltd, which holds a MiFID licence from the MFSA. Its X-Perps launched in April 2026. They work like perpetual futures but carry a five-year expiry, offer up to 10x leverage and require you to pass an appropriateness test first.
OKX publishes proof of reserves. Its exchange hasn't been hacked, although its separate decentralised exchange service lost about $2.7 million to an exploit in 2023.
Coinbase Luxembourg S.A. holds Coinbase's MiCA licence, granted by Luxembourg's CSSF in June 2025, and passports it across the EEA. Coinbase moved its EU hub from Ireland to Luxembourg to obtain it. The parent company is listed on the Nasdaq and publishes audited financial statements.
The main app is one of the easiest ways to buy crypto, and Coinbase Advanced adds order books and charts for more active trading. Standard Advanced fees are 0.4% maker and 0.6% taker, among the highest in this ranking, and simple buys in the main app cost more. You can deposit euros by SEPA.
Since March 2026, eligible customers in 26 EU countries can trade futures on Coinbase Advanced, including five-year perpetual-style contracts with up to 10x leverage on Bitcoin and Ether. These come from Coinbase Financial Services Europe Ltd, a Cyprus-regulated MiFID II firm, not from the MiCA-licensed company.
Coinbase keeps most customer crypto in cold storage and supports two-factor authentication and withdrawal address whitelisting. In 2021, more than 6,000 customers had their accounts compromised.
Bitpanda's main exchange company, Bitpanda GmbH, was authorised under MiCA by Austria's FMA in April 2025, and that licence is passported across the EEA. Two other group companies hold MiCA licences from BaFin in Germany and the MFSA in Malta.
What sets Bitpanda apart is range. Next to crypto and crypto indices, the same app offers stocks and ETFs through a separately regulated investment firm, plus precious metals. Staking, a Visa debit card for euro-area residents and margin trading are also available.
Fees are where Bitpanda falls behind. Its main app charges a fixed trading fee that's built into the price you're quoted: 0.99% for Bitcoin, 1.49% for most other coins and 2.49% for coins with a market value under €100 million. Bitpanda Fusion, its exchange for more active traders, charges 0.25% at the lowest volume tier. You can fund your account by SEPA, card, Skrill, Neteller, Klarna or iDEAL.
In August 2026, the FMA fined Bitpanda €70,000 for notifying a crypto white paper late and starting its marketing too early. It was Austria's first published MiCA fine. Bitpanda uses cold storage and two-factor authentication but doesn't publish proof of reserves.
Gate EU is run by Gate Technology Limited in Msida, Malta. The MFSA authorised it under MiCA in September 2025, and the licence is passported across the EEA. Gate stopped accepting new EEA customers on its global platform in March 2025 and has since been moving existing European users to Gate EU.
The EU platform is deliberately narrow: spot trading, Convert, OTC trades and staking. Its site doesn't list margin, futures, copy trading or a P2P market. It currently lists 195 assets, with trading pairs quoted in euros or USDC.
Standard spot fees are 0.1% maker and 0.1% taker, and Gate says Convert has no fee. You can deposit euros by SEPA once you've completed advanced verification, buy with a card, Apple Pay or Google Pay, and withdraw euros to a bank account in your own name.
Gate says most customer assets are held in cold wallets, and accounts support two-factor authentication, passkeys, an anti-phishing code and withdrawal whitelists. Its EU proof-of-reserves page shows a snapshot from January 2025 and doesn't say whether it covers the EU company. A Gate Card for EEA customers is listed as coming soon.
Bitstamp Europe S.A. received its MiCA licence from Luxembourg's CSSF in May 2025, and the licence is passported across the EEA. Bitstamp was founded in 2011, which makes it one of the oldest exchanges still operating, and Robinhood completed its purchase of the company in 2025.
Bitstamp focuses on spot trading, with 118 assets and standard fees of 0.3% maker and 0.4% taker. Fees fall as your monthly volume grows, which suits larger traders more than occasional buyers. You can deposit by SEPA, card, Apple Pay, Google Pay or PayPal.
In April 2026, Bitstamp launched perpetual futures for EU customers through Bitstamp Financial Services Ltd, a MiFID II firm supervised in Slovenia. Leverage goes up to 10x. At launch, the contracts covered ten assets and were available on the web platform only.
Bitstamp supports two-factor authentication and withdrawal address whitelisting. In January 2015, attackers stole about 19,000 BTC from its hot wallet.
Every exchange here holds a full MiCA authorisation, which we checked against ESMA’s register of licensed crypto-asset service providers and the exchange’s own legal pages. The licence was the entry requirement, not the ranking itself.
The order reflects what EU customers actually get under that licence: the range of assets and products, standard fees, euro deposit and withdrawal options, security measures such as proof of reserves, and how long the company has operated. Where futures or staking come from a different company or fall outside MiCA, the review says so.
This comparison is based on the exchanges’ published fee schedules, legal pages and announcements rather than hands-on testing, and those details can change.
A MiCA licence means a national regulator has checked the company’s management, capital and internal controls and continues to supervise it. Licensed exchanges must keep customers’ crypto separate from their own, have a complaints procedure and manage conflicts of interest. They’re also liable if customer assets are lost because of their own failures.
It isn’t a deposit guarantee. There’s no compensation scheme like the one that protects bank deposits, and prices can fall just as sharply on a licensed exchange as anywhere else.
Some products sit outside MiCA. Staking and lending are generally not covered, and both Kraken and Bitvavo say so about their own staking products. Futures fall under MiFID II, the EU’s investment rules, so they’re offered by a separate, differently licensed company.
If you want futures, check which company offers them. Kraken, OKX EU, Coinbase and Bitstamp each run derivatives through a separate company licensed under MiFID II, not through their MiCA-licensed exchange. That means separate terms, an appropriateness test before you can trade and much lower leverage than on global platforms. At all four, EU futures go up to 10x.
Bybit EU and Gate EU don’t offer futures, and Bitvavo is spot-only. Bitpanda offers margin trading rather than a futures market.
Our comparison table shows the limits for EU customers.
Kraken is the most complete choice, with a large spot market, regulated futures through its Cyprus subsidiary and a long track record. Bitvavo is the simplest option if you just want to buy and hold with euros, and Bybit EU gives you the most ways to pay.
If you trade actively, OKX EU and Coinbase both add regulated futures to their MiCA-licensed spot markets, though Coinbase’s standard fees are high. Bitpanda suits investors who want stocks, ETFs and metals next to crypto. Gate EU has low spot fees but a narrow product range, and Bitstamp is a long-running spot exchange that now offers futures too.
Whichever you choose, confirm that you’re signing up with the MiCA-licensed company for your country, and check which company provides any futures or staking you plan to use.
It means the exchange holds an authorisation under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation from a national regulator, such as the AFM in the Netherlands or the CSSF in Luxembourg. The regulator checks the company's management, capital and controls and supervises it on an ongoing basis. The licence can be passported to other EEA countries.
Partly. Licensed exchanges must keep your crypto separate from their own assets and are liable for losses caused by their own failures. But MiCA has no deposit guarantee or compensation scheme, and it doesn't protect you from falling prices. Staking and lending products may not be covered at all.
Find the name of the company you'd sign up with in the exchange's terms, then search for it in ESMA's register of crypto-asset service providers or on your national regulator's website. The register also shows which countries the licence covers.
The national transition periods ended on 1 July 2026, so companies now need a MiCA licence to offer crypto services to people in the EU. Some offshore platforms still accept EU users, but they aren't supervised under MiCA, and you wouldn't have its protections if something went wrong.
MiCA only allows exchanges to offer stablecoins whose issuers are authorised in the EU. Tether, which issues USDT, doesn't have that authorisation, which is why licensed exchanges such as OKX EU don't offer USDT trading to EU customers. USDC and euro stablecoins such as EURC are the usual alternatives.
No. Both are separate European companies with their own MiCA licences: Bybit EU GmbH in Austria and Gate Technology Limited in Malta. They run separate EU websites, offer fewer products than the global platforms and don't offer futures. New EEA customers are directed to the EU versions.
