Ledger CTO: EU's MiCA Compliance Costs of €50K–€150K Per Project Killing Web3 Innovation

According to Ledger CTO Charles Guillemet, speaking to CoinDesk on June 8, the EU's MiCA regulation imposes capital requirements of €50,000–€150,000 and compliance costs of $4,500–$87,000 per token whitepaper, making it prohibitively expensive for small crypto startups. Guillemet noted that these financial barriers create competitive advantages for well-capitalized traditional financial institutions rather than fostering innovation.

As a result, small Web3 startups are being squeezed out of the European market, while banks increasingly rely on native crypto security providers like Ledger to deliver enterprise-grade infrastructure for custody and asset tokenization services.