Ireland MiCA Regulations 2024 (S.I. No. 607/2024)

S.I. No. 607/2024 provides the domestic legal architecture needed for MiCA supervision and enforcement in Ireland. Its central function is to designate the Central Bank of Ireland as the competent authority in the State for the purposes of Article 93(1) of MiCA. The instrument also aligns Irish financial-services legislation with the EU regime by adding MiCA and the Irish MiCA Regulations to existing Central Bank enforcement and supervisory frameworks.

The instrument should be read alongside the directly applicable EU MiCA Regulation. MiCA sets uniform EU rules for crypto-asset issuers, offerors, trading admissions and crypto-asset service providers. The Irish Regulations identify the Irish authority, supervisory powers, sanctioning routes and transitional arrangements that apply within Ireland.

The Central Bank describes MiCAR as covering specified crypto-asset activities not already covered by EU financial-services law, including crypto-asset issuance, custody and administration, and the operation of crypto-asset trading platforms and exchanges. The regime is relevant to asset-referenced tokens, e-money tokens, other crypto-assets such as utility tokens, and firms providing crypto-asset services.

Crypto-asset service providers require authorisation to operate within the EU. Covered services include custody and administration, operation of trading platforms, exchange of crypto-assets for funds or other crypto-assets, execution and transmission of orders, placing, advice, portfolio management and transfer services. Authorised CASPs are subject to conduct, prudential and anti-money laundering expectations under the MiCA framework and related Irish regulatory processes.

The Regulations give the Central Bank a broad set of supervisory and investigative powers. These include requiring information and documents, suspending or prohibiting crypto-asset services, suspending offers or admissions to trading, requiring amendments to white papers and marketing communications, ordering corrective disclosures, conducting on-site inspections and taking steps to restrict access to online interfaces where necessary to address serious risks to clients or holders of crypto-assets.

The enforcement structure also addresses contraventions by regulated financial service providers and by non-regulated financial service providers. Available measures include public statements, orders to cease conduct, disgorgement where profits or avoided losses can be determined, management bans and administrative fines. The instrument provides for assessment, appeal and High Court confirmation mechanisms for adverse assessments and sanctions.

MiCA became applicable to issuers of asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens on 30 June 2024 and to crypto-asset service providers on 30 December 2024. Under the Irish transitional approach, firms registered and operating under Ireland’s VASP regime before 30 December 2024 could continue operating for up to 12 months, or until a CASP authorisation was granted or refused, whichever occurred first. That Irish transitional period ended on 30 December 2025.

The Irish instrument itself came into operation before MiCA’s CASP application date, allowing the Central Bank’s domestic authority and enforcement framework to be in place for the EU regime’s full application. Notice of the making of S.I. No. 607/2024 was published in Iris Oifigiúil on 12 November 2024.

S.I. No. 607/2024 has been amended by S.I. No. 34/2026, the European Union (European Single Access Point) (No. 3) Regulations 2026. The amendment updates the definition of the MiCA Regulation to reflect Regulation (EU) 2023/2869 and adds a future European Single Access Point provision making the Central Bank the collection body for information required under Article 88 of MiCA. That ESAP-related amendment is scheduled to come into operation on 10 January 2030.

This profile is a legal-reference summary for editorial and structured-data use. It does not provide legal, tax, investment or compliance advice. Readers should consult the official Irish Statute Book, Central Bank of Ireland and EU sources for the operative legal text and supervisory materials.