Bybit's dedicated Austrian payments subsidiary, Bybit Payments GmbH, has received an electronic money institution license from Austria's Financial Market Authority, the exchange announced Tuesday. The approval lets the entity develop person-to-person payments, merchant payment solutions, open banking features and card products for customers across the European Economic Area.
The license sits alongside a separate entity, Bybit EU GmbH, which has held authorization under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation since May 2025 and handles the exchange's crypto custody, exchange, placement and transfer services. With the new e-money license, Bybit now has two distinct regulatory tracks running in parallel: one covering crypto-asset services, the other covering regulated fiat payment products.
Services will be offered through the Bybit.eu platform across the EEA, though Malta is excluded from the current rollout. The company said its offerings remain available “only in jurisdictions where applicable MiCA passporting requirements have been met,” a caveat that reflects how uneven MiCA implementation still is across individual member states more than a year after the regulation began phasing in.
Why the license matters
Bybit framed the approval as a way to strengthen ties with banks, payment providers and enterprise partners while cutting its dependence on third-party payment infrastructure — a notable goal for an exchange, since payment rails have historically been one of the more fragile links between crypto platforms and the traditional banking system.
A reshaped competitive field
The timing places Bybit in the middle of a broader scramble for compliant footing in Europe. MiCA's transition deadline landed on July 1, 2026, requiring crypto firms to hold a license from at least one EU member state to keep operating across all 27 countries under the regulation's passporting rules. Binance, by contrast, suspended new orders, deposits and sign-ups for EU residents on that same date, leaving existing accounts in withdrawal-only mode and opening the door for licensed rivals to absorb migrating customers. Coinbase, Kraken, OKX, Crypto.com, Bitstamp and Bitpanda have each already secured Crypto-Asset Service Provider licenses through individual member states, and Tether's decision not to pursue e-money-token authorization has similarly pushed EEA users toward compliant stablecoin alternatives. Against that backdrop, Bybit's Austrian e-money license reads as an attempt to secure a fuller regulatory footprint in Europe just as the market consolidates around exchanges that can prove they meet the bloc's new bar.
