Webull Securities (Europe) B.V. secured its Webull MiCAR approval from the Netherlands’ Autoriteit Financiële Markten (AFM) on 13 July 2026, positioning the broker to offer regulated crypto custody and order-transmission services to European clients before the end of the year.
The approval makes Webull one of the first dual-regulated investment firms in the Netherlands to hold both MiCA authorisation and an existing investment-firm licence under the same regulator, according to the company. Passporting rights will extend the licence across the European Economic Area once regulatory sign-off on those applications is confirmed.
What the Webull MiCAR approval actually covers
According to the AFM register, Webull Securities (Europe) B.V. was originally authorised as an investment firm on 26 September 2024, covering reception and transmission of orders, custody, currency exchange, and analyst reports. Passporting entries are already active for Germany (from 22 January 2026) and for Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, and Finland (from 19 February 2026), giving the crypto rollout a pre-built distribution footprint across five EU markets.
Under the service architecture, Webull EU handles custody of client crypto assets while trade execution flows through a partnership with Coinbase Luxembourg S.A. That structure separates the custodial liability from the execution venue, a common approach under MiCAR’s operational requirements.
Coinbase Luxembourg S.A. is itself MiCA-licensed, having received its authorisation from Luxembourg’s Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) on 20 June 2025, making it the first US crypto exchange to clear that bar, per CNBC. Its licence covers custody, spot exchange, order execution, reception and transmission of orders, and transfer services, as confirmed by France’s AMF white list.
Andries van Luijk, CEO of Webull Securities (Europe), said: ‘We are pleased to have received MiCAR approval from the AFM, marking an important milestone in Webull’s European ambitions.’ He added that the company intends to provide clients with regulated access to digital assets under the EU’s new framework.
\p>Webull Corporation, listed under the ticker BULL, is the parent entity behind the European subsidiary.
MiCAR’s passporting race and where Luxembourg fits
Webull’s Netherlands-first strategy is one of several routes firms are using to enter the EU’s single crypto-licensing regime. Luxembourg has become the dominant hub: Ripple received a full Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) licence from the CSSF earlier this month, covering regulated crypto payment services across all 30 EEA countries. Bridge secured both a MiCA CASP authorisation and an Electronic Money Institution licence in Luxembourg, enabling euro-backed stablecoin infrastructure and virtual IBANs.
The licensing acceleration follows a hard regulatory deadline. Under the AFM’s MiCAR framework, crypto-asset service providers that were already active before 30 December 2024 under a national regime had until 30 June 2025 to obtain a MiCAR licence or cease operating under the transitional period. The AFM had opened CASP applications from 22 April 2024, with licences usable from 30 December 2024.
That transition has already reshaped the European market structure. Coinbase, Kraken, and Crypto.com removed USDT trading for European users after Tether chose not to seek MiCA authorisation. Binance introduced separate service changes to comply with the framework.
For Webull, the Netherlands approval is the first step. The initial rollout is planned for the Netherlands before passporting carries the service across the rest of the EU, with full operations targeted for late 2026. The pending passporting confirmation is the near-term gating item: once cleared, Webull MiCAR approval becomes a bloc-wide licence rather than a single-market authorisation.
