On 8 July 2026, the Supervision Committee of Latvijas Banka issued two licences to Nodu Digital SIA. The first authorises the provision of crypto-asset services1: exchanging crypto-assets for funds, and providing transfer services for crypto-assets on behalf of clients. The second authorises operation as a payment institution,2 enabling the execution of payments, including transfers to payment accounts. Nodu Digital is the tenth company licensed by Latvijas Banka under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation.3 Authorisation in one EU Member State permits service provision throughout the Union under the cross-border notification mechanism.4 The timing carries the significance. The MiCA transitional period ended on 1 July 2026, and ESMA has instructed unauthorised providers to wind down EU activities.5 One week later, Latvia granted its tenth authorisation. As unauthorised capacity exits the market, authorised capacity is what remains to absorb it, and small engagement-forward regulators are producing it at pace.
Why the dual licence?
The pairing is the structural point. A CASP licence governs the crypto leg; it does not confer the right to provide fiat payment services, which sit under the EU payments framework rather than MiCA. A crypto platform that exchanges assets for funds still needs regulated rails to move those funds. Holding both licences in one entity closes the corridor end to end: crypto in, exchange, fiat out to a payment account, all under one supervised roof, with both permissions passportable. For business models built on merchant settlement or client pay-outs, the dual structure removes the dependency on third-party payment partners that has been the operational weak point, and the compliance seam, of many single-licence CASPs.
Latvia's compounding pipeline
This grant lands a day after Latvijas Banka licensed SIA MOIN Payments as an electronic money institution, its fourth EMI of 2026 alongside five payment institution licences. Ten MiCA CASPs now sit on the register of a Member State of under two million people. The infrastructure explains the throughput: published licensing guides covering documents, process and review deadlines; a maintained classification of crypto-assets6 overview mapping which assets fall under MiCA and which under other legal acts; and pre-licensing consultations through the Innovation Hub, where supervisory experts assess compliance before an application is filed. Jurisdiction selection for EU market entry should weigh this model seriously: documented process, direct supervisor access, demonstrated willingness to license, and a full passport at the end of it.
What firms should note
Firms structuring EU crypto operations may consider to assess whether their model needs the payments leg as well as the CASP permission, and whether acquiring both from a single regulator beats stitching a CASP licence to a third-party payment partner. Firms exiting the EU under the ESMA wind-down should note where migrating client books can land: the register of authorised CASPs is the destination list, and it is growing from jurisdictions the default shortlists overlook. Pre-licensing consultation should precede the application, not follow a deficiency letter.
Latvia's central bank has paired a MiCA crypto-asset service provider licence, covering crypto-to-funds exchange and client transfer services, with a payment institution licence for the same company, assembling a complete crypto-fiat corridor under one roof, passportable across the EU, at the precise moment the end of the MiCA transitional period makes authorised capacity the scarce commodity.
Notes
1. A crypto-asset service provider (CASP) is a legal person authorised under Title V of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCA) to provide one or more of the ten crypto-asset services MiCA enumerates. Authorisation is service-specific: Nodu Digital's permission covers two of the ten, exchange of crypto-assets for funds and transfer services for crypto-assets on behalf of clients. Services outside the granted set, custody among them, would require a variation of the authorisation, not merely a business decision.
2. A payment institution is authorised under the EU payments framework (PSD2, as transposed nationally) to provide payment services such as executing transfers to payment accounts. Fiat payment services are outside MiCA's scope, which is why a CASP moving client money in euro needs this second permission or a partnership with someone who holds it. The two regimes also carry separate capital, safeguarding and conduct requirements; a dual-licensed entity runs both compliance stacks.
3. MiCA entered into force in 2024, with the CASP authorisation title applying from 30 December 2024, creating the EU's unified legal framework for crypto-asset markets and displacing national registration regimes.
4. The passporting mechanism: a CASP authorised in one Member State may provide services across the EU after notifying its home regulator of intended cross-border activity, which informs host-state authorities. One licence, twenty-seven markets; the home regulator's supervisory quality therefore travels with the firm.
5. ESMA Public Statement of 23 June 2026 (ESMA75-113276571-1710): providers without MiCA authorisation after the 1 July 2026 end of the Article 143(3) transitional period must immediately stop onboarding EU clients, confine services to exit transactions and wind down in an orderly manner, with NCAs coordinating enforcement alongside EBA and AMLA.
6. Classification is the threshold exercise MiCA makes unavoidable: an instrument qualifying as a financial instrument under MiFID II, a deposit, or certain other categories falls outside MiCA into other legal acts, while e-money tokens and asset-referenced tokens carry their own MiCA issuance titles. Latvijas Banka's published overview maps these boundaries, giving applicants the regulator's own analytical starting point.
