CASP (Crypto-Asset Service Provider)
Crypto-Asset Service Provider is the MiCA-era EU term replacing national VASP registrations for firms providing custody, exchange, trading platform, or advisory services on crypto-assets. A CASP license, once granted in one EU member state, passports across the whole bloc under MiCA’s single-license model.
The transition deadline pushed national VASP registrations out of validity across the EU, so a crypto business still trading on a pre-MiCA registration risks its EU banking access lapsing at the same moment its license does. A single CASP license replaces what used to require separate registration in every member state you served.
A Virtual Asset Service Provider is a business registered or licensed to exchange, custody, or transfer crypto assets on behalf of customers, a classification introduced by the FATF Travel Rule and adopted into national registration regimes across most jurisdictions that touch fiat rails.
MiCA is the EU’s harmonized regulatory framework for crypto-assets, covering issuers of asset-referenced and e-money tokens plus CASPs providing exchange, custody, and trading services.
An EMI licence is the authorisation a regulator grants a firm to operate as an Electronic Money Institution: issuing e-money and providing payment accounts and services.
Know Your Business is the due-diligence process banks, EMIs, and acquirers run to verify a corporate applicant: beneficial ownership, incorporation documents, source of funds, and the nature of the business itself.