OpenPayd joins the EU's MiCA club — passport stamped, stablecoin shoes on 🇪🇺

Financial infrastructure provider OpenPayd said Wednesday that it has secured authorization under the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), enabling it to offer crypto services across the European Economic Area (EEA) through passporting. The license designates OpenPayd as a crypto asset service provider (CASP), allowing it to provide services including fiat-to-stablecoin on-ramping and off-ramping. "Stablecoins are rapidly becoming part of mainstream financial infrastructure," OpenPayd CEO Iana Dimitrova said, adding that MiCA gives businesses greater confidence to use digital asset technology for payments, treasury operations and growth. A company spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the license was issued by the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA), which has also granted MiCA authorizations to crypto firms including OKX and Gemini.

The approval arrives ahead of a July 1 MiCA transitional deadline, as crypto companies race to secure authorization under the bloc's crypto rules. On Tuesday, Bitcoin Suisse received a MiCA license in Liechtenstein and Ripple announced preliminary CASP approval in Luxembourg. OpenPayd's authorization comes roughly a year after the company launched its stablecoin infrastructure, a platform that lets businesses manage fiat currencies and digital assets through a single interface. The company said it processes more than $240 billion in annualized transaction volume for over 1,100 businesses worldwide, with clients including Kraken, eToro, OKX and B2C2. OpenPayd was founded in London in 2018 by Ozan Ozerk, who also founded the Lithuania-based digital bank European Merchant Bank.

Separately, OpenPayd is pursuing a US public listing. Earlier in June, the company announced a proposed merger with special purpose acquisition company Titan Acquisition Corp, a transaction that would see its shares trade on Nasdaq under the ticker "OP" if approved. The deal values OpenPayd at about $1.1 billion and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals.