🧵 Thread of the week - Spain’s New #Crypto Rules and What They Mean for Bitcoiners 👇

1/ 🇪🇸 #Spain is pushing a major crypto legal overhaul set for 2026.

The reforms will significantly affect how #Bitcoin and other digital assets are regulated across licensing, compliance, and anonymity standards.

2/ 📜 Two Pillars of the New Regime:

👉 MiCA Licensing Expansion — service providers must meet clearer licensing requirements.

👉 DAC8 Tracking Rules — enhanced reporting requirements for crypto transactions.

3/ 🧑‍⚖️ Why this matters legally:

Spain’s approach signals that regulators are tightening compliance — even for Bitcoin, which until now has often lived in a somewhat ambiguous legal space.

4/ 🛂 DAC8 Tracking = Less Anonymous Bitcoin Use

Under the new reporting regime, custodial services and intermediaries will need to disclose transaction data — meaning increased KYC/AML scrutiny. This could impact privacy‑focused use cases.

5/ 📈 Licensing: A Double‑Edged Sword

On the one hand, robust licensing brings legal certainty for exchanges and custodians.

On the other, it raises barriers to entry that could squeeze smaller Bitcoin businesses.

6/ 🧩 Legal Liability for Unlicensed Activity

Once these rules take effect, unlicensed operations in Spain could face fines or enforcement actions — even if only facilitating BTC transactions as a neutral service.

7/ ⚖️ What Bitcoiners Should Watch:

✔ Whether Spain treats BTC differently from tokens in regulatory texts.

✔ How DAC8 will apply to decentralized platforms and self‑custody.

✔ What penalties await non‑compliant firms.

8/ 🧠 Big Picture:

Spain’s roadmap reflects a broader global trend — regulators aren’t ignoring Bitcoin anymore; they’re integrating it into mainstream financial law with rules, reporting, and oversight.

9/ 🔔 Bottom Line:

Bitcoin isn’t unregulated anymore — legal clarity is emerging, but it comes with new obligations. For lawyers and BTC businesses alike, Spain is now a jurisdiction to watch.