Client funds at crypto-asset service providers must reach a bank by the next business day
In Q&A 2949, dated 6 October 2026, ESMA sets the deadline for placing client funds at a crypto-asset service provider into an account with a credit institution or a central bank.
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has answered Q&A 2949 on Article 70 of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). The answer is dated 6 October 2026, the question 28 August 2026, and the status on the page is “Answer Published”.
An authorised crypto-asset service provider may temporarily hold client funds, whether they arrive from the client directly or from third parties on the client’s behalf, in a payment account at a non-bank payment service provider such as an electronic money institution or a payment institution. While the funds sit there, the safeguarding rules in Article 70(2) of MiCA still apply.
No later than the end of the business day after the day the funds were received, the provider must place them in an account with a credit institution or a central bank, as Article 70(3) requires. That account has to be opened and kept in the provider’s own name, or it has to follow the legal segregation of assets that applies.
An account in the name of a non-bank payment service provider does not meet Article 70(3), because the provider would then have only a claim against that firm and would not itself be the account holder toward the credit institution. The same holds when the account was opened specifically for the provider and is technically segregated from other accounts.
The Q&A does not change the wording of MiCA. The opinion on non-compliant stablecoins is in the 9 October report.
Sources
- ESMA — Q&A 2949, question 28 August 2026, answer 6 October 2026, read 19 October 2026
- SOLANA·HUB — Non-compliant stablecoins