MiCAR finally live in Belgium

Until very recently, Belgium was one of the last EU Member States that had not yet initiated its MiCAR license application procedure. As a result, crypto-asset service providers located in Belgium and those wanting to issue crypto-assets in Belgium had no means to arrange their MiCAR compliance. This was, of course, a concerning situation as Belgian service providers risk falling behind their competitors in other EU Member States. Moreover, it fostered legal uncertainty on when and how they would be able to start offering their services.

On 11 December 2025, the Belgian law formally implementing MiCAR into the Belgian legal sphere was adopted. The Belgian MiCAR Act was necessary to bring the existing legal framework in line with the requirements of MiCAR and to arrange the division of competences between the two Belgian financial regulators, the National Bank of Belgium (NBB) and the Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA). In this blogpost, we take a quick look at what has been determined. 

1. Regular Crypto-assets 

The FSMA will be the competent authority for the issuance of crypto-assets other than asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens. Regular crypto-asset white papers will, therefore, have to be notified to the FSMA. 

2. Asset-referenced tokens 

The NBB will be the main competent authority for the issuance of asset-referenced tokens. Entities wishing to issue asset-referenced tokens will, therefore, have to receive authorization from the NBB. The NBB will also receive the white paper as part of this process. Nevertheless, the FSMA will be the competent authority for certain conduct of business rules, such as the obligation to act fairly and honestly, the publication duty, marketing rules, complaints handling, and conflict of interests handling. Moreover, the FSMA will also be able to advise the NBB when handling authorization requests. 

3. E-money tokens 

The NBB will also be the competent authority for the issuance of e-money tokens. This is quite logical, as the NBB is also the competent authority for e-money institutions. However, the Federal Public Service Economy receives competence over certain consumer protection aspects, such as the free redeemability of the e-money tokens and the prohibition of granting interest. 

Also here, the FSMA can provide its advice to the NBB. 

4. Crypto-asset service providers 

For crypto-asset service providers, competences will be split. The NBB will be the competent authority for entities already under its competence. This includes credit institutions (banks), central security depositories, e-money institutions, and stockbrokers that are already licensed and want to offer equivalent crypto-asset services, as well as stockbrokers, payment institutions and e-money institutions requiring a new license under MiCAR. 

The FSMA will be competent for all investment firms – except stockbrokers – UCITS management companies or alternative investment fund managers, and market operators. Also new market entrants – not having a previous license under financial regulations – are subject to the FSMA’s competence. Again, the FSMA will also have advisory competences for entities under the NBB’s competence, while for new market entrants the NBB can advise the FSMA. 

Similar to the situation for crypto-assets, the FSMA will also be the competent authority for certain conduct of business rules – such as the obligation to act fairly and honestly, complaints handling, etc. – even for the entities under the NBB’s competence. 

5. Market abuse and enforcement 

Enforcement of the rules regarding market abuse fall under the competence of the FSMA. 

Last, the Act set outs the wide range of enforcement powers of each regulator. It also defines the administrative fines, as well as the criminal penalties. 

Conclusion 

This division of competences follows the well-established lines of division between the NBB and the FSMA. It assigns to each regulator the types of entities that are functionally similar to traditional financial entities already under their supervision. Nevertheless, it also provides a mix of competences so that there are only a few limited cases in which a single regulator is solely competent over an entity. This will require a close cooperation between both regulators. 

With this Act having entered into force early January 2026, issuers of the various types of crypto-assets and crypto-asset service providers can now officially submit their white papers and/or license applications. However, it should be noted that with this we are still only in the very early stages. So far, the FSMA has created an e-mail address to which applications can be sent. However, there is still no further information or guidance for the sector. This is unfortunate given the various interpretation and implementation issues regarding MiCAR, as well as in sharp contrast to several other regulators in Europe that have already developed a wealth of guidance to applicants in their jurisdictions. Proper legal and regulatory guidance, however, remains key in building a solid application file. This will not only increase the chances of success of the application, but also greatly reduce the time and costs of this procedure. 

For any questions regarding your MiCAR licensing application in Belgium, please contact niels.vandezande@timelex.eu.