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Bison Bank just became the first bank in Portugal authorized to operate directly as a Crypto-Asset Service Provider under MiCA, the EU’s comprehensive crypto regulatory framework. The authorization, granted on June 22, makes the Lisbon-based institution a genuine rarity: one of approximately 30 banks across the entire European Union cleared to offer MiCA-compliant crypto services.
From VASP to CASP: the long game
Bison Bank didn’t wake up one morning and decide to get into crypto. The groundwork started back in 2022, when its wholly owned subsidiary, Bison Digital Assets (BDA), launched as Portugal’s first bank-owned Virtual Asset Service Provider licensed by the Bank of Portugal.
BDA spent the following years building out institutional and high-net-worth client relationships. By 2025, the subsidiary was serving around 275 clients and had facilitated roughly €165 million in trading volume.
The new CASP authorization effectively absorbs BDA’s operations into the parent bank. Full integration of the subsidiary is expected by the end of 2026. Instead of running crypto services through a side entity, Bison Bank will offer them directly, the same way it offers conventional banking products.
That upgrade unlocks a broader menu of services, including custody, exchange, and advisory offerings for crypto assets.
Stablecoins, tokenization, and actual profits
In early May 2026, Bison Bank launched what it calls the Bison Bank Electronic Money Token, Portugal’s first bank-issued stablecoin. The product comes in two flavors: EUB, pegged to the euro, and USB, pegged to the US dollar. Both launched on May 6–7, just weeks before the CASP license was finalized.
Issuing a stablecoin under MiCA rules is not trivial. The regulation imposes strict reserve requirements and transparency obligations on electronic money token issuers. Bison, already being a bank, sidesteps that particular headache.
Beyond stablecoins, the bank has signaled plans to move into tokenization of real-world assets.
Bison Bank posted a recurring net profit of €5 million in 2025, double what it earned the year before. Its Common Equity Tier 1 ratio stood at 38.5%. EU regulators typically require banks to maintain a CET1 ratio above roughly 8–10%, making Bison’s nearly four times that threshold.
In March 2026, the bank picked up a Euromoney award as Portugal’s Best Bank for Digital Assets.
Why MiCA matters more than you think
MiCA has been applicable in the EU since 2023, with key authorization rules kicking in as of December 2024. A transitional period for existing providers expired on July 1, 2026, meaning any crypto firm operating in the EU without proper MiCA authorization is now operating outside the law.
MiCA replaced a fragmented patchwork of national rules with a single rulebook. A CASP license obtained in Portugal is valid across all 27 EU member states through passporting, meaning Bison Bank’s authorization unlocks the entire European Economic Area.
What this means for investors
Bison Bank’s 275 institutional and high-net-worth clients represent a relatively small base. The CASP license, combined with stablecoin issuance and planned RWA tokenization, gives the bank a product suite targeting institutional capital. European family offices and asset managers that have been sitting on the crypto sidelines because of regulatory concerns now have a fully licensed, fully regulated banking partner to work with.
With Tether and Circle dominating the global stablecoin market, a bank-issued, MiCA-compliant euro stablecoin serves a niche that neither of those issuers fully addresses: European institutional users who need regulatory certainty above all else.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
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