Vienna, 2. June 2025 – EY Law Austria advised Bybit in the successful crypto-asset service provider licensing procedure for Bybit EU GmbH in Austria. The grant of this MiCAR license marks an important milestone in Bybit fully regulated market rollout in the EEA. With MiCAR as the first comprehensive EU Single-Market regulatory framework for crypto-assets, Bybit EU plans a full launch in the EEA in the coming weeks, after completing the passporting procedure. The decision to choose Vienna, Austria, as Bybit EU’s headquarter came after an extensive evaluation process, ultimately selecting Austria, as a highly reputable jurisdiction and overall beneficial economic environment for Bybit EU. As part of the rollout of the fully regulated European operations, Bybit EU makes a significant contribution to the further development of a central European crypto-hub in Vienna.
“It makes us very proud to be the first large, global player to receive a MiCAR license in a procedure from scratch in the EU and the first global player in Austria. We are eagerly looking forward to our market launch and are already working in parallel to further extend our licensing portfolio in Austria,” states Ben Zhou, CEO Bybit Global.
“The approval of our MiCAR license represents a significant step to drive forward Bybit’s ambitions to offer innovative crypto investment products and services to the European market. Bybit holds itself to highest compliance standards, thus we are very pleased to receive a MiCAR license in Austria, one of the most reputable EU jurisdictions. The close collaboration of our global and dedicated EU teams with the highly specialized and competent EY Law and EY teams made it possible to achieve this goal in record time,” says Jonathan Cheong, Global General Counsel & Head of Legal, Risk and Compliance at Bybit and Bybit EU Holdings.
Martin Hanzl, EY Law Partner and Head of the FinTech Team, adds: “We are thrilled to have reached this significant milestone alongside Bybit EU. The successful licensing under MiCAR reflects the strong commitment from both teams and marks a decisive step toward a more mature and regulated crypto market in Europe. It demonstrates that when regulatory frameworks are clear and workable, leading innovators are ready to fully embrace them. We’re excited to continue supporting Bybit EU ensuring full compliance and a successful European launch.”
Bybit EU and EY Law are already working together on further licensing projects to expand Bybit EU’s product and service offering in a fully regulated manner.
The EY Law FinTech Team, led by Partner Dr. Martin Hanzl, has supported this licensing procedure, including Dr. Elisabeth Reiner (Lead Attorney, Senior Manager & Compliance/AML Lead), Clemens Burian-Kerbl (Lead Attorney, Senior Manager), Anja Moser (Regulatory Specialist & Project Manager), Titus Kahr (Legal DORA Lead), Marie Winter, Miriam Broucek, Alexander Glaser, Paul Neubauer, Eva Arene, Emanuel Boesch, and Armin Laudon. The broader EY Austria network with its dedicated experts also supported Bybit, especially in the areas of Tax (Markus Stefaner, Christian Massoner) and Tech Consulting (Drazen Lukac).
EY Law FinTech Team
The award-winning EY Law FinTech Team supports a wide range of innovation driving companies, especially in highly regulated industries such as the crypto sector. Innovation is the cornerstone for discovering and leveraging new business areas and market gaps, but requires sophisticated legal advice to operate within the remits of applicable regulations. The legal experts at EY Law equally advise newly envisaged projects and established international companies on implementing their individual business models while keeping an eye on the legal landscape regarding new EU regulatory frameworks on crypto-asset services and AI technology in combination with full compliance for more common regulatory rulesets and consumer protection.
The FinTech team is one of the fastest-growing areas of the firm, leading many renowned FinTechs and Top 10 global crypto exchanges in their innovation and licensing projects. Through cooperation with EY’s IT experts and extensive practical experience, EY Law offers comprehensive support for companies in the digital environment, for which our teams have been recognized multiple times, such as in the Chambers FinTech Band 1 ranking, Legal500, WTR1000, and the JUVE Awards.
Bybit & Bybit EU
Bybit is the world’s second-largest crypto-asset exchange platform, providing over 60 million users globally access to its innovative crypto investment products and services. Bybit EU is the newly established EU headquarter and will serve the EEA clients on the dedicated Bybit EU platform.
Find out more on bybit.com
