Europe's MiCA Regime Now Covers Over 300 Approved Crypto Firms, With Custody Services Dominating
Key Takeaways
- •The EU's MiCA framework currently lists 323 distinct crypto-asset service providers in the ESMA register following the full application of CASP provisions in December 2024.
- •Germany serves as the dominant licensing hub with 69 entities, representing more than one in five of all registered CASPs.
- •At least 55 traditional financial institutions, including major banks such as BBVA, Commerzbank, BNY, and Standard Chartered, now appear in the MiCA register.
- •Custody is the most frequently authorized service under MiCA, covering 201 of the 323 listed entities, followed by transfer services at 193.
- •Non-EU crypto firms must establish a legal entity within the bloc and obtain CASP authorization, as MiCA provides no equivalence regime for international exchanges.
Europe's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework now encompasses 323 distinct crypto-asset service providers (CASPs), according to a BitKE analysis of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) database. MiCA, formally Regulation (EU) 2023/1114, is the European Union's harmonized rulebook for crypto-asset issuance, trading, and custody, and its CASP provisions became fully applicable across all 27 member states in December 2024. ESMA states that its register is updated on a weekly basis.
A central feature of MiCA is passporting: a CASP authorized in one member state can provide services throughout the entire EU without needing separate national licenses. Germany stands as the largest licensing hub by a significant margin, accounting for 69 of the 323 entities. France follows with 34, the Netherlands with 29, Cyprus with 25, and Malta with 22. Collectively, these five jurisdictions represent more than half of all entities listed in the dataset.
The register also illustrates the extent to which traditional finance has entered the regulated crypto sector. At least 55 bank or bank-branded institutions appear in the register, including BBVA, Commerzbank, DekaBank, DZ Bank, KBC, CACEIS, CaixaBank, BNY, Standard Chartered, N26, Trade Republic Bank, and Scalable Capital Bank, alongside numerous German cooperative banks. Several of these institutions, particularly German banks, had already obtained crypto custody licenses under pre-MiCA national regimes, easing their transition into the unified framework.
Custody is the most widely authorized MiCA service, appearing for 201 of the 323 entities. Transfer services follow with 193, while exchange of crypto-assets for fiat is authorized for 166 entities, and order execution for 155. This distribution suggests that MiCA's first regulated cohort functions less as a collection of crypto exchanges and more as an emerging financial-services infrastructure market that spans banks, brokers, exchanges, custodians, payments companies, and asset managers.
Major crypto firms listed include Coinbase, Kraken, OKX, Bybit, Crypto.com, Bitpanda, Bitstamp, Bitvavo, Robinhood, and WhiteBIT. Newer infrastructure providers such as Bridge also appear alongside these established financial institutions. For non-EU firms, MiCA provides no equivalence regime, meaning international exchanges must establish a legal entity within the bloc and obtain a CASP authorization to serve European customers on a regulated basis.
Germany's concentration is particularly notable: more than one in five entities in the dataset lists Germany as its home member state. MiCA therefore appears to extend beyond licensing Europe's existing crypto industry, creating a regulated market in which banks and traditional financial firms constitute a substantial portion of the crypto-service landscape.
Note: This BitKE analysis is based on the ESMA CASP dataset. The file contains 329 records representing 323 entities when consolidated by Legal Entity Identifier (LEI). One Spanish entity has no LEI listed in the file.