When a licence is suspended pending review: what it costs to be wrong
A suspension pending review stops you providing crypto-asset services for the period the competent authority sets, even though your authorisation has not been withdrawn. Getting the response wrong — trading through the suspension, missing the authority's evidence request, or waiting for a formal decision before acting — turns a temporary measure into grounds for withdrawal.
The rule behind it
Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCA) sets the framework under which a national competent authority authorises and supervises crypto-asset service providers, and under which it may suspend that authorisation while it reviews a specific concern. The regulation does not fix a suspension period. The authority sets the length case by case, in the notice it sends you.
That notice is the operative document from the moment it arrives. It tells you what is suspended, what is not, and what the authority wants from you before it decides whether to lift the measure or move towards withdrawal.
What changes operationally
Suspension is not withdrawal, but it produces most of the same effects on the ground. Clients cannot be onboarded as new business. Existing service typically continues under closer supervision, unless the notice says otherwise. Any transaction flow paused mid-process at the moment the notice lands stays paused until the authority acts again.
Continuing to solicit new clients while a suspension is in force is treated as operating without authorisation. That is a harder position than the one that triggered the review, and it rarely helps a subsequent request to lift the suspension.
| Aspect | Before suspension | During suspension pending review |
|---|---|---|
| New client onboarding | Permitted under your authorisation | Paused; new onboarding reads as unauthorised activity |
| Existing client service | Ongoing as normal | Continues under supervision, subject to the notice's instructions |
| Fund transfer information duties | Standard information accompanies each transfer under Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 (TFR) | Same duties apply; supervision may scrutinise them more closely |
| Public communication | Ordinary marketing permitted | Any statement implying full, unrestricted authorisation is a separate risk |
| Authorisation status | Active | Active but restricted; not yet withdrawn |
What to do, in order
- Stop new client onboarding the day the notice arrives. Instruct your compliance function, not sales, to confirm the exact scope of the freeze.
- Request the evidence file behind the suspension in writing, addressed to the contact who issued the notice.
- Preserve every transaction record and client communication from the period under review. Do not edit or consolidate logs while the review is open.
- Map which obligations under Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 (TFR) touch the transfers under scrutiny, and confirm your team is meeting them without gaps during the suspension.
- Answer the authority's questions on the record it asked for, not on a broader record you consider more favourable.
- Set an internal date to follow up if the authority has not responded within the timeline stated in its own notice.
Who decides, and on what record
The national competent authority that granted your authorisation under Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCA) also decides on suspension, and later on whether to lift it or move to withdrawal. It decides on the evidentiary record it has requested from you, not on the record you consider complete.
The regulation itself does not set a fixed statutory response window for this decision. The authority states its own procedural timeline in the notice, and that timeline — not a general statutory deadline — is the one that is already running against you.
If your situation forks
If the suspension follows a security incident that reached your systems through a supplier relationship, that exposure runs on a separate track: When security duties reach you as a supplier covers it.
If the review also turns up a branding conflict, so that When an earlier unregistered sign appears in your marketing, that is a trade mark question, not a suspension question, and it needs its own file.
If the same review reaches your codebase and you find that Freelancers signed nothing ownership of results what it costs, treat that ownership gap separately from the suspension itself.
If your suspension coincides with a dispute over Royalties encoded on-chain are ignored tokenised rights what it costs to correct, that dispute sits on a different track and does not itself extend the suspension.
What this page does not cover
This page does not tell you whether your specific suspension will be lifted or converted into withdrawal. That depends on the file the authority is reviewing, which we have not seen. It does not cover the separate procedure for appealing a refusal to authorise in the first place, and it does not set out the substantive grounds on which a suspension can be based, since those depend on the specific concern named in your notice.
Verified
Verified: state on publication date. Primary sources: Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCA); Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 (TFR), both as published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
Related situations
If your case began as a refusal rather than a suspension, the clock runs differently: When an appeal deadline follows a refusal explains the different procedure and its own deadline.
Frequently asked questions
What is the first step when a licence is suspended pending review?
Stop the activity the notice restricts, on the day the notice arrives, and route the notice to compliance rather than to the team that deals with clients day to day.
Which deadline is already running?
Not a deadline set by the regulation itself. The authority states its own procedural timeline in the suspension notice, and that stated timeline is the one already running.
Who decides, and on what evidence?
The competent authority that granted the authorisation decides, based on the evidence it has specifically requested from you rather than on a general account of your compliance position.
If you are inside a live suspension window and want a second view on the notice you received, get in touch. We reply during business hours, and we tell you plainly whether we can add anything before you spend more time on it.