Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs) are non-banking financial institutions specialized in the issuing of electronic money and the provision of payment services. They were introduced in 2000 and revised in 2009, but the MiCA Regulation proposal will amend their legal framework. Through a legal analysis of the “lives” of EMIs, this paper argues that the European framework for EMIs has, over time, levelled market conditions for business entities professionally providing the issuance of e-money, but still lacks a consistent construction and application of European standards and waivers, suffering from a dystopian approach between public and private enforcement.