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Glossary termPublished inMiCA

Close links

What does "Close links" mean under MiCA?

Close links as defined in Article 4(1), point (35), of Directive 2014/65/EU:

'close links' means a situation in which two or more natural or legal persons are linked by:
  • (a) participation in the form of ownership, direct or by way of control, of 20 % or more of the voting rights or capital of an undertaking;
  • (b) 'control' which means the relationship between a parent undertaking and a subsidiary, in all the cases referred to in Article 22(1) and (2) of Directive 2013/34/EU, or a similar relationship between any natural or legal person and an undertaking, any subsidiary undertaking of a subsidiary undertaking also being considered to be a subsidiary of the parent undertaking which is at the head of those undertakings;
  • (c) a permanent link of both or all of them to the same person by a control relationship.

Defined in / by

Last updated: 22 August 2026.

Regulations

  • Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA)

    MiCA is Regulation (EU) 2023/1114. Full application began on 30 December 2024 and the EU-wide transitional period expired on 1 July 2026, so there is now no grandfathering anywhere in the EEA. Around 325 crypto-asset service providers are authorised. Not one asset-referenced token issuer appears on ESMA's register.

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    Commission final report under Art. 140, covering DeFi, third-country equivalence, thresholds and consensus-mechanism environmental impact

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