Under MiCA, your home member state decides which regulator receives your white paper, not which rules apply to your token provided that such token is not an asset reference token or an e-money token. If your company is registered in the EU, that decision was made when you incorporated, and only projects established outside the EU get a genuine choice at launch.

Malta is one of the most used jurisdictions among those projects with 167 white papers currently notified to the MFSA as of the date of this article. The reasons are practical rather than legal, which is why the comparison is worth making carefully.

What the Home Member State Decides

MiCA applies the same Title II rules across the EU to tokens that are neither asset-referenced tokens (ARTs) nor e-money tokens (EMTs). Their white paper is notified to the competent authority of the home member state, which may not require prior approval under Article 8 of MiCA.

The white paper notification must be made at least 20 working days before publication. It must include an explanation of why the token is not an ART, an EMT or an instrument excluded from MiCA, together with a list of any host member states where the token will be offered.

The home regulator forwards the file to ESMA and to those host states within five working days, and the published white paper then supports offers across the EU. That passporting is what makes the choice last, because the home regulator handles every later modification, marketing query and supervisory question for as long as the token is offered or traded. The Global Law Experts guide to MiCA white papers covers the drafting side in more detail.

Who Can Actually Choose a Home Member State

The definition in Article 3(1)(33) of MiCA leaves less room for choice than many founders expect. An offeror with its registered office in the EU has no choice: its home member state is simply where that office is.

An offeror with no EU registered office but one or more EU branches chooses among the member states where it has branches. An offeror established entirely outside the EU picks either the member state where the token is first offered to the public or, if it prefers, the one where admission to trading is first sought.

This is why the question matters most to projects structured through foundations in the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands or Switzerland. For an EU-based team, choosing Malta means incorporating the offering entity in Malta, with the substance that goes with it.

How Malta Compares With Other EU Options

Because the rules are the same everywhere, the real differences lie in how the process works day to day. These are the factors that usually decide it.

Factor	Why it matters	Where Malta stands
Regulator experience	A regulator that sees many token white papers is familiar with common classification and disclosure issues	Malta accounted for 167 white papers for other crypto-assets on ESMA’s registers as of March 2026, second only to Ireland
Working language	English white papers are accepted everywhere, but correspondence, local law and court proceedings may not be in English	English is an official language, and MFSA rules and Maltese legislation are published in English
Filing cost	Notification fees are set nationally	€2,500 per white paper notification and €1,000 per modification
Listing ecosystem	Relevant where the home member state follows the first admission to trading	Several large exchanges, including OKX and Crypto.com, hold MiCA authorisation from the MFSA

The language point is often misunderstood. Article 6(9) of MiCA allows a white paper in a language customary in international finance, and MiCA’s recitals identify that language as English, so a filing in France or the Netherlands does not need a French or Dutch white paper.

Where English does help is everything around the filing: dealing with the regulator, reading local implementing law and, if a dispute arises, the courts. Malta and Ireland are the only member states where English is an official language.

Register data shows who uses Malta in practice. An analysis of ESMA’s registers published on Global Law Experts found that 39 of the 45 independent token projects notifying in Malta had head offices outside the EU, mostly in the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands.

Malta also had more locally incorporated filers than Ireland or the Netherlands, the other two leading jurisdictions. That reflects a local base of advisers, auditors and service providers built up since the Virtual Financial Assets Act of 2018.

When the Choice Is a Licensing Decision: ARTs and EMTs

An ART issuer needs prior authorisation in the member state of its registered office and must hold own funds of at least €350,000, while an EMT can only be issued by a credit institution or an electronic money institution, with the home member state being wherever that licence was granted.

For these tokens, choosing a jurisdiction means choosing where to be licensed. Projects considering an EMT from Malta would typically look at an EMI licence in Malta first, along with the capital, substance and governance work that comes with it.

As of March 2026, no ART issuer appeared on ESMA’s registers anywhere in the EU, according to the same analysis.

Questions to Settle Before You Choose

Where is the offering entity established, and does it have EU branches? This decides whether you have a choice at all.
Where will the token first be offered or first listed? For non-EU offerors, this is the choice.
Is the token clearly outside the ART and EMT categories? The notification needs a reasoned explanation, and a wrong classification changes the whole regime.
Which regulator do you want for the life of the token? Modifications, marketing communications and supervisory questions all go to the home authority.

For projects weighing Malta, the practical work starts with classification and the white paper itself. Teams looking at structuring a token issuance from Malta can use A2CO’s MiCA readiness assessment to see which areas of token design, governance and disclosure are most likely to draw supervisory questions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the MFSA Approve MiCA White Papers?

No. For tokens other than ARTs and EMTs, the MFSA receives a white paper notification and does not approve it in advance, under article 5 of Malta’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Act, although it keeps its supervisory powers once the white paper is notified.

Can a BVI or Cayman Foundation Choose Malta as Its Home Member State?

Yes, if it has no EU branch. It can do so by making its first EU public offer, or its first request for admission to trading, in Malta.

Does a Malta White Paper Need Translating for Other EU Countries?

Not if it is drawn up in English. MiCA accepts a language customary in international finance for the home member state and for any host member states.

About the Author

Anton Dalli is a Partner at A2CO, a Malta-based corporate services and regulatory advisory firm. He works with token issuers and crypto-asset service providers on MiCA classification, white paper preparation and engagement with the MFSA.