Bybit Payments GmbH, Bybit’s European payments subsidiary, has received an electronic money institution (EMI) licence from the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA). According to Tokenpost, the licence allows Bybit to offer remittance, merchant acquiring, open banking interfaces and card issuing on a compliant basis, beyond its exchange business. Services will be delivered through Bybit.eu and cover the European Economic Area (EEA), but exclude Malta. The new entity will run alongside Bybit EU GmbH, which was approved in May 2025 under the EU Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA, Regulation (EU) 2023/1114): one handles crypto-asset services, the other electronic money and payments. You can verify the licence in the institution register on the FMA website.
Editorial Take: What This Changes for Cardholders
The point is not that “Bybit got another licence”. It is that the layer at which cards are issued is shifting.
Until now, almost every exchange card, including Bybit Card, has been a sandwich: the exchange handles the account and the ₮ debit, while a third-party licensed EMI / BIN sponsor handles the actual e-money issuance, safeguarding of funds and card-scheme connectivity. The cost of that structure is familiar to users: BINs get swapped without notice, limits shift with the sponsor’s risk policy, and when a country suddenly drops off the supported list, the exchange itself can only relay the notice.
With its own EMI licence, Bybit can in theory become the e-money issuer in the EEA and bring that layer in-house. There are three direct implications for users:
- Within 7 days: nothing changes. Going from an EMI licence to actual card issuance is a product engineering task, not an announcement. Existing Bybit Card holders do not need to do anything.
- Within 30 days: watch whether Bybit.eu opens a separate European card application flow, and whether the issuer named on the terms page changes from a third party to Bybit Payments GmbH. That is the only hard indicator of whether in-house issuing has really started.
- Within 90 days: if in-house issuing does move forward, European users may see more stable BINs, a clearer SEPA deposit and withdrawal path, and a balance structure denominated in euros (an EMI’s core function is issuing electronic money, not custodying crypto assets).
Conversely, this news brings no benefit to non-EEA users. Asia-Pacific users still face the old question: whether account region, IP location and card BIN country all match. This is also why we name the Asia Elite variant of MPCard as our editor’s pick: its Asia-Pacific BIN lines up naturally with an Asia-Pacific account setup, rather than relying on a single European licence to cover the world. EU residents choosing a card should see USDT card comparison for EU residents.
Historical Context: Not the First, but a Different Position
Three reference points:
- Wirex (around 2018): one of the first crypto-industry companies to obtain a European/UK e-money licence. As the Wirex review shows, being licensed early does not automatically mean a stable product. A licence settles whether you are allowed to operate, not whether you do it well.
- The MiCA timeline (adopted in 2023, CASP provisions applicable from late 2024): over the past two years European crypto firms have applied en masse for MiCA authorisation, and Bybit EU GmbH’s approval in May 2025 is of this type. But MiCA authorisation does not cover payments or e-money issuance, which fall under the EMD2/PSD2 framework. The Austrian EMI licence fills exactly that gap, and the “dual licence in parallel” setup is what completes the picture.
- Bybit’s major security incident in February 2025: since then, Bybit has visibly stepped up its investment in the compliance and fund-segregation narrative. Seen in that context, the EMI licence is more coherent: obtaining it is not just expansion but also a move to rebuild institutional trust.
What differs from the earlier two points: in the past, exchanges’ European licences mostly amounted to being able to keep offering trading services. This time the licence scope explicitly includes merchant acquiring and card products, which points toward payments infrastructure rather than exchange compliance for its own sake.
Compliance Boundaries: Clearly Permitted, Grey Areas, and the Excluded Piece
- Clearly permitted: e-money issuance, remittance, merchant acquiring and open banking services within the EEA (excluding Malta). This is the authorised scope as written in the licence.
- Still a grey area: the accounting treatment of USDT as a card top-up asset under an EMI framework. MiCA places additional restrictions on non-euro stablecoins such as USDT as a “means of payment”, and in practice most European cards convert at the moment of the transaction. For the specific boundaries, see our EU USDT card compliance guide.
- Excluded: Malta. The original report does not explain why, and we will not speculate without evidence. Still, Malta has historically been a favourable jurisdiction for crypto licensing, and a separate carve-out often suggests that another arrangement already exists locally or that there is a regulatory coordination issue. For this point, rely directly on the Bybit.eu terms of service.
- Not applicable at all: non-EEA users. Treating a European licence as a signal of “available worldwide” is a common misreading.
Four Milestones Worth Watching
- The issuer named on the Bybit.eu card terms page: a change from a third party to Bybit Payments GmbH would be the first verifiable signal that in-house issuing has launched.
- The list of authorised services in the FMA register: the specific permissions under the EMI licence (including whether card issuing is listed) are authoritative only as recorded on the official register, which carries more weight than a press release.
- Whether the treatment of Malta changes: if it is later included, the exclusion was transitional; if it stays excluded long term, there is likely a structural reason.
- Whether euro-denominated balances go live: this determines whether European users can escape the structure in which every purchase triggers a ₮→EUR conversion, and it is the most substantive fee-level improvement.
Editorial Recommendations
EEA users who already hold a Bybit Card: no action needed. Existing cards will not stop working before in-house issuing launches, and there is no need to cancel early to wait for a new version.
Users planning to apply for a new card in Europe: you can wait 30 days. If an in-house version launches within that window, you get clearer terms and more stable BINs. If nothing happens, the rollout is taking longer than expected, and you can still decide afterwards by comparing existing products in the EU resident card ranking.
Asia-Pacific users: this news does not affect you, so do not change how you choose a card. A European licence will not improve how Asia-Pacific BINs perform on subscriptions. Users paying with ₮ for ChatGPT Plus (official $20/month) or Claude Code should still prioritise keeping account region, IP and card BIN consistent; for specifics, see the MPCard review.
What not to do under any circumstances: leave a large ₮ amount parked in a card balance long term just because “the issuer got a licence”. EMI licensing requires client funds to be safeguarded, but safeguarding is not deposit insurance, and European deposit guarantee schemes do not cover e-money balances. A card is a payment tool, not a deposit account, and no licence changes that.