EU policymakers designed MiCA to bring transparency and trust to the crypto industry. That vision is hard to realize when implementation capacity is stretched thin.

In Denmark, the continuous delays in application processing have now forced crypto company and member of NBA, PixelPai, to close its doors. Despite meeting every deadline and responding to every request from the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority (Finanstilsynet) the company is still waiting to hear news regarding its license, and CEO Morten Rongaard announced yesterday, on February 15, that it will cease operations.

The fate of Pixelpai - and the persistent pattern of delays - points to a structural issue.

Simply put, supervisory ambition must be matched by supervisory resources. If authorities are not adequately funded or staffed to process CASP applications in a timely (and legal) manner, regulatory certainty becomes difficult to achieve. Meanwhile, the applicant companies absorb the costs through lost revenue, missed funding opportunities, and prolonged uncertainty.

Danish policymakers often talk about growth and the importance of technological innovation. Yet these ambitions require that the implementing institutions are given the resources to carry out EU law effectively.

This is not only about individual firms. It affects Denmark’s competitiveness, its ability to retain blockchain entrepreneurs, and the credibility of its regulatory environment. A predictable regulatory framework is not just a compliance matter - it is a foundation for investment, innovation, and market development.

If regulatory frameworks are only as strong as their execution, it’s time we put implementation capacity at the center of the MiCA conversation in Denmark.

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Read the announcement from PixelPai's CEO, Morten Rongaard, here.

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