Is crypto legal in Austria? Regulation & rules (2026)

AMINA Bank received a MiCAR authorisation from the FMA, joining a growing roster of crypto firms choosing Austria as their EU base under the harmonised regime.

Major exchange Bybit secured FMA authorisation as a crypto-asset service provider in roughly 4-5 months, signalling Austria's emergence as a preferred EU licensing hub.

The FMA granted Bitpanda GmbH authorisation as a crypto-asset service provider under Article 63 MiCAR — the first full MiCAR licence issued in Austria.

Title V (CASP authorisation and ongoing supervision) provisions of MiCAR took effect, making the FMA the comprehensive supervisor of Austria's crypto market, with a transitional period for existing providers running to end-2025.

Austria's national transposition law, passed by the National Council on 3 July 2024, took effect and designated the FMA as the competent authority for all crypto-asset activities, with administrative penalties up to EUR 15 million for market abuse.

Titles III and IV of the EU Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, governing asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens, began applying in Austria, the first MiCAR provisions to take effect.

New rules treating income from crypto-assets as capital income taxed at the special 27.5% rate took effect, giving holders tax certainty and allowing losses to be offset against other capital gains.

An amendment to the Financial Market Authority Act (new §23a FMABG) created a regulatory sandbox for fintech, DLT and crypto-asset business models, easing the path to becoming a supervised entity.

Transposing the EU 5th AML Directive, the Financial Market Anti-Money Laundering Act required virtual asset service providers (exchanges, custodial wallets, issuers/transfers) to register with the FMA for AML/CFT purposes or cease operating in Austria.

The collapse of the Austrian-linked 'Optioment' scheme — up to 10,000 victims and ~12,000 BTC (≈$115m) lost — prompted FMA cooperation with Vienna prosecutors and a cross-border investigation, spotlighting crypto fraud risks.