Authorised Romanian CASP shells exist, though the universe is narrower than in early-mover EU jurisdictions like Lithuania or Cyprus. Most acquirable Romanian assets today are entities that filed within the GEO 10/2025 transitional window before 30 November 2025 and are mid-procedure on full ASF authorisation, often with the ADR technical clearance still in flight. Those assets sell at a discount to fully-authorised competitors and are the right target profile for an acquirer comfortable funding the residual authorisation work. Send a buy-side mandate via the contact page for a current short-list.

Yes. There is no nationality restriction on direct or indirect shareholders of a Romanian CASP, only the standard MiCA Article 42 qualifying-holdings procedure. ASF runs a fit-and-proper review on every acquirer in the control chain (financial standing, source of funds, regulatory history, integrity). Non-EU acquirers add documentation depth but not procedural friction; the file is the same. We have walked acquirers from the GCC, the UK, and the US through the Romanian process, and the diligence questions sharpen on banking and tax structuring rather than on regulator posture.

Acquisition is the faster route where a candidate target sits already inside the ASF supervisory perimeter under the GEO 10/2025 transitional filing. The acquirer signs an SPA conditional on ASF non-objection under the qualifying-holdings procedure (MiCA Article 42), files the change-of-control package, satisfies any outstanding ADR technical-clearance work, and closes after the non-objection issues. The greenfield alternative (incorporating, capitalising, building governance and IT, then filing for authorisation) is procedurally cleaner but typically takes longer than acquiring a target with an in-process file. We brief both routes during mandate intake.

Before GEO 10/2025, Romania regulated crypto-asset service providers through ONPCSB AML registration and general consumer-protection rules; there was no prudential authorisation as such. A MiCA CASP is authorised under Title V of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114, which brings statutory minimum capital, formal governance, fit-and-proper assessment of management and qualifying shareholders, IT-resilience standards, conduct-of-business rules, and supervisory reporting obligations the legacy regime never imposed. Acquirers buying a legacy operator today are buying a transitional asset whose value depends on whether it converts cleanly into an ASF authorisation before the 1 July 2026 EU deadline.

Two dates matter, and they do different things. Romania’s domestic transitional window under GEO 10/2025 expired on 30 November 2025; legacy operators that did not file within it are no longer inside the Romanian transitional protection. The EU-wide MiCA Article 143(3) grandfathering, by contrast, runs until 1 July 2026 for crypto-asset services already provided before 30 December 2024, and that EU date cannot be extended by Romanian national law or by ASF decision. Targets that filed in time inside the GEO 10/2025 window, and that complete ASF authorisation before 1 July 2026, transition without service interruption. Targets that did neither face a cliff.

Yes. A CASP authorisation issued by ASF under MiCA carries a single-licence right to provide crypto-asset services across the EU 27 under the host-state notification procedure (MiCA Article 65). The target entity remains supervised by ASF as home regulator; host-state regulators are notified, not approached for separate authorisation. This is the structural reason an acquirer with EU-wide ambitions can rationally pick Romania over a heavier-capital jurisdiction: the licence reach is the same, the supervisory profile is leaner, and the cost-of-operation profile favours the acquirer.