France grants the MiCA CASP authorisation as the agrement PSCA, issued by the AMF with the ACPR, through the Banque de France, giving binding assent on anti money laundering and prudential aspects via a joint examination team. It replaced the legacy PSAN regime of mandatory registration plus an optional licence, and a single authorisation covers the ten MiCA services. France used the full eighteen month transition, which ended on 1 July 2026; from that date providing crypto services without CASP authorisation is prohibited, with an orderly wind-down required of unconverted firms and no reverse-solicitation workaround.
The authorised population built steadily through the transition. Deblock became the first French CASP in May 2025, Societe Generale's SG-Forge followed in October 2025, and around eighteen firms were authorised by late May 2026, with the count continuing to grow. In March 2026 the AMF adopted ESMA's staff knowledge and competence guidelines.
Capital follows the MiCA class-based minimums, scaling by class, with no French add-on. There is no separate one-off application fee: the sum charged at authorisation is the first annual contribution, with a smaller white-paper fee alongside, and external advice is the larger part of the all-in cost. Ongoing supervision is a flat annual contribution, plus a small assets-based levy for custodians. The AMF notes that first submissions are rarely complete, and a well-prepared file clears the dual AMF and ACPR scrutiny without the multi-year timelines seen in slower regimes.
Substance follows MiCA: a registered office in France where the services are performed, effective management in the EU and at least one EU-resident director, with fit-and-proper management, DORA, internal control and AML arrangements all assessed. The authorisation passports across the EU and EEA, which the legacy PSAN never did.