Zerohash has proven itself to be a trailblazer after securing an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license from the Dutch central bank. This makes the company the first to hold a MiCA authorization to use EMI credentials in Europe.
MiCA is an acronym for Markets in Crypto-Assets, and it represents the European Union’s regulatory framework for crypto.
Why dual licensing?
Unfortunately, E-money tokens, a category which includes most stablecoins, fall under both the MiCA directive which governs crypto assets, and the Payment Services Directive (PSD2), which governs electronic money. One license does not cover both directives, and makes it necessary to have dual licensing to operate as both a cryptocurrency and a payment service.
The European Banking Authority mentioned this issue in a June 2025 no-action letter. The EBA clarified that holding and transferring stablecoins for clients counts as a payment service under the PSD2 directive, and told regulators in respective European countries to require payment services authorization for those activities starting March 2, 2026. That was a deadline of nine months from the announcement given to crypto-asset service providers (CASPs).
Zerohash succeeded in scaling this hurdle before the deadline. The firm’s Amsterdam subsidiary, Zerohash Europe B.V., received its MiCA authorization from the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) in October 2025, according to BSC News. The EMI license from the Dutch National Bank only now completes the necessary pair of licenses.
How would the dual licenses be used?
With both authorizations active, Zerohash is now licensed to run stablecoin payments for institutional clients across all 30 countries in the European Economic Area, while being fully compliant with all regulatory bodies.
“Europe has a massive market for stablecoin applications,” Zerohash Europe Managing Director Roeland Goldberg mentioned in the announcement. Goldberg also noted that the company has recently expanded its Amsterdam office and is powering a lot more partners.
Zerohash impact
Zerohash, founded in 2017, employs about 200 people across offices in New York, Chicago, North Carolina, and Amsterdam, and also raised a $104 million Series D-2 round last September led by Interactive Brokers at a $1 billion valuation. The firm is now said to be in talks to raise another $250 million at a $1.5 billion valuation after negotiations with Mastercard over a purchase agreement broke down.
The company has also filed an application for a national trust bank charter with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, indicating intentions to get on top of regulatory efforts on the other side of the Atlantic.
Zerohash’s dual authorization and acquisition of an EMI license sets a great precedent for the wider European crypto community. This shows that it is possible to secure the required authorizations and regulatory compliance, and gives ‘smaller’ CASPs a foundation to work with in Europe.
