Glossary / Regulation & tax
Order execution service
Also known as Execution of orders for crypto-assets on behalf of clients, Execution of orders on behalf of clients.
- What is Order execution service?
- Order execution service is shorthand for what MiCA calls execution of orders for crypto-assets on behalf of clients: concluding agreements to buy, sell or subscribe for crypto-assets on a client's behalf.
A firm holding this authorisation acts as your agent when it buys or sells bitcoin for you, rather than selling you its own coins at a price it sets itself. Annex IV places the service in Class 1, the lowest capital band, at EUR 50 000 of permanent minimum capital. Article 78 attaches a best execution duty that the plain exchange service does not carry.
How it works
Article 3(1)(21) of MiCA draws the service around one act: concluding agreements, on behalf of clients, to purchase or sell one or more crypto-assets, or subscribing on their behalf, and it expressly includes contracts to sell crypto-assets at the moment of their offer to the public or admission to trading. The client decides what to trade; the authorised firm signs the resulting deal in the client's interest.
Article 78 then loads that act with duties. Paragraph 1 requires the provider to take all necessary steps to obtain the best possible result for the client, weighing price, costs, speed, likelihood of execution and settlement, size, nature and the conditions of custody of the crypto-assets. The same paragraph carves out a client who gives specific instructions: follow those instructions and the best result test stops applying to what they cover.
Paragraph 2 requires effective execution arrangements and a written order execution policy providing for prompt, fair and expeditious execution, and stopping employees misusing information about client orders. Paragraph 3 requires each client to consent to that policy in advance, after being told in plain terms how their orders will be executed. Paragraph 5 adds a second consent: where orders may be executed away from a trading platform, the client must expressly agree first, by general agreement or trade by trade. Paragraph 4 makes all of it checkable, because the firm has to demonstrate compliance to a client on request and to its competent authority on demand. Paragraph 6 requires ongoing monitoring of whether the chosen venues still deliver the best result, plus notice to clients of any material change.
Where you see it
Point (e) of the crypto-asset service list in Article 3(1)(16) is where this service sits, alongside custody, trading platform operation, the two exchange services, placing, reception and transmission of orders, advice, portfolio management and transfers. Article 59(6) makes competent authorities spell out which of those services an authorisation actually covers, so a firm can hold order execution without holding any of the others.
Annex IV prices the permission. Order execution on its own puts a provider in Class 1 at EUR 50 000 of minimum capital; adding custody or either exchange service moves it into Class 2 at EUR 125 000, and running a trading platform on top of that makes it Class 3 at EUR 150 000. The table's own heading calls those figures the minimum capital requirements under Article 67(1), point (a), which is only half the test: Article 67(1) requires prudential safeguards of at least the higher of the Annex IV amount and one quarter of the preceding year's fixed overheads, reviewed annually.
Firms already regulated elsewhere get a shortcut. Article 60(3), point (d), deems execution of orders for crypto-assets equivalent to the execution of orders on behalf of clients in Section A, point (2), of Annex I to Directive 2014/65/EU, so a MiFID investment firm notifies its home authority at least 40 working days before it starts, instead of applying for a fresh licence.
Order execution service vs crypto-asset trading platform
Order execution service and crypto-asset trading platform sit on opposite sides of the same trade. Article 3(1)(18) defines platform operation as managing a multilateral system that brings together multiple third-party buying and selling interests under its own rules until a contract results, so the operator runs the venue and acts for nobody in particular. The order execution provider acts for one named client, and Article 78(5) assumes it may take that order outside any platform at all, which is why the Regulation makes it collect express permission first.