Rumours have been growing in recent weeks about the prospect of Coinbase obtaining a Markets in Cryptoassets (Mica) licence in Luxembourg. Will they be put to rest this week, at the second edition of Nexus Luxembourg? Not for sure. Whilst the Luxembourg regulator, the Financial Sector Supervisory Commission (CSSF), has reportedly given the go-ahead, the European Securities and Markets Authority (Esma) has yet to do the same. Neither regulators are commenting on the dossiers they are working on.

It was Reuters, on Friday evening, that took it upon itself to pre-empt the forthcoming official announcement. According to the news agency, a Coinbase spokesman did not comment on its application but said it employed 200 people in Europe and had invested in staff to ensure secure operations. The spokesperson said Luxembourg was a “highly respected and high-profile global financial centre” and Coinbase would be hiring more than 20 people there by the end of the year.

Coinbase has registered a structure since the start of the year, housed at Spaces, 5 Rue de la Gare. According to the Nexus attendance list in the event app, CEO Brian Armstrong will be leading a delegation of 15, including his chief compliance officer Tim Smith, vice president for Emea Daniel Seifert and political director for the EU Roeland Van Derstappen.

In a way, this announcement would be a setback for Ireland. At the end of 2023, Coinbase had announced its intention to make Dublin its “EU Mica hub,” where it has an e-money establishment licence and a Vasp registration; in addition to a crypto licence in Germany; and several national registrations in other major EU member states (including Italy, the Netherlands and Spain), as signs of its willingness to comply strictly with the regulations in place.

Reuters attributes this change of course to a cooling of Ireland’s attitude towards cryptoassets. In 2023, central bank governor Gabriel Makhlouf compared cryptocurrencies to a Ponzi scheme, warning that “most of the time when you bet, you actually lose money.”

This article was originally published in French.