Italian Bitcoin Shop Comproeuro to Close Nov. 27 After MiCA Licensing Failure

Comproeuro, a Bitcoin shop in Rovereto, northern Italy, plans to close on Nov. 27 after failing to secure authorization under the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). The store stopped buying and selling Bitcoin in December 2025 and will end its remaining consultation and educational services at closure.

The shop opened in December 2017 as a counter where customers exchanged euros for Bitcoin. Its name borrowed from Italian gold-buying shops that traditionally swapped used goods for cash.

What killed the licensing effort?

Marco Amadori, co-founder of local Bitcoin ATM company inbitcoin, said the store never held customers' euros or Bitcoin. He said the licensing process included a €20,000 charge plus other expenses tied to custody services that Comproeuro did not provide.

Amadori described the burden as too large for a neighborhood storefront and said the closure does not stem from a regulatory violation. He said the process effectively required the shop to arrange custody for assets it had never held, arguing the rules were designed for larger operators that hold customer assets but imposed similar costs on a small retail business.

He said compliance expenses could consume the store's expected profit before it served its first customer, and that a letter he sent to Italy's Parliament produced no result. Amadori also argued that applying the same compliance burden regardless of whether a provider holds customer assets would not make customers safer and would eliminate a service model he considered protective.

Can MiCA authorization work without custody?

Ten crypto firms headquartered in Italy held MiCA authorization as of Nov. 3. Eight of them could provide custody services, while the other two held permission for exchange services only. That split shows MiCA authorization remains available to firms without custody operations. Amadori identified licensing costs, not the custody question itself, as the obstacle for Comproeuro.

Where does MiCA enforcement stand?

MiCA's rules for asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens took effect on June 30, 2024. Its general provisions followed on Dec. 30, 2024, establishing a common authorization framework for crypto-asset service providers across the EU. The regulation's transition window ended July 1, 2026, after which providers without authorization generally had to stop serving EU customers.

Comproeuro's Nov. 27 closure predates a related market exit: a Binance France account closure scheduled for Dec. 31 following that firm's own MiCA setback. Both dates mark the practical end of unauthorized or unlicensed crypto services in their respective jurisdictions under the regulation's enforcement timeline.