MiCA and the AIFMD-light regime are often confused, yet they regulate entirely different things. In short, MiCA concerns crypto services and the issuance of crypto-assets, whereas the AIFMD-light regime concerns the manager of an investment fund. For an investor that distinction is no detail: it determines who supervises what.
What MiCA regulates
The European Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2023/1114, MiCA) targets two groups: the issuers of crypto-assets, including stablecoins, and the providers of crypto-asset services, the CASPs. The latter include trading platforms, custodians and brokers. The rules for CASPs have applied since 30 December 2024, and in the Netherlands the AFM grants the authorisations. MiCA therefore concerns mainly the infrastructure a fund uses, not the fund itself.
What the AIFMD-light regime regulates
The AIFMD (Directive 2011/61/EU) regulates not the crypto, but the manager of an investment undertaking. A crypto fund is such an alternative investment fund. As long as assets under management stay below the thresholds, roughly 100 million euro with leverage or 500 million euro without, no licence is required but a registration with the AFM: the light regime. It carries conditions, such as units offered to fewer than one hundred and fifty persons or at a minimum of 100,000 euro per investor. A light manager is registered, but not subject to ongoing supervision in the way a licensed manager is.
Two layers, not competition
MiCA and the AIFMD therefore complement one another; they do not clash. The fund falls under the AIFMD-light regime, while the trading platforms and custodians it uses fall under MiCA. Crypto-assets that legally qualify as financial instruments, moreover, fall not under MiCA but under MiFID. Keeping the two frameworks apart makes it easier to see exactly where supervision of a crypto investment sits.
Where Callisto Capital stands
Callisto Capital is a Dutch registered investment fund under the AIFMD-light regime and is not subject to ongoing supervision by the AFM. It invests in crypto-assets according to a predetermined strategy and, for execution and custody, uses parties that hold a MiCA authorisation. In this way the fund and the infrastructure it uses each fall under the framework that applies to them. Participation is open from an investment of 100,000 euro.
This publication is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment, legal or tax advice.
