Germany is home to almost a third of the crypto firms licensed under the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). The EU's interim register, maintained by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), now lists 394 licensed providers, 122 of them based in Germany — a large share of them local cooperative banks. France follows with 36 licensed firms and the Netherlands with 29. With the EU-wide transitional period now over, the register serves as the official reference for which firms can still legally offer crypto-asset services to European clients.

Germany's Lead Widens Through 2026

Germany's lead has widened steadily this year. An April 2026 snapshot of the ESMA register compiled by Binar showed Germany with 53 licensed entities, more than 26% of the EU total at the time. In August, Cointelegraph reported — in an update summarised by Bloomingbit — that Germany had reached 79 licences after six cooperative banks were added in a single update, up from 57 at the end of June.

According to the same report, BaFin, Germany's financial regulator, told Cointelegraph that the high count reflects the size of the country's financial sector and the number of credit institutions able to offer crypto-asset services. BaFin also noted that Germany operated a national licensing framework for crypto firms before MiCA, which allowed some firms to obtain approval through a simplified process. Those two factors, as BaFin described them, are the backdrop to a run of additions that has kept widening Germany's gap over France and the Netherlands.

Cooperative Banks Drive Recent Additions

Cooperative banks continue to make up many of the recent entries. Register trackers such as Penning list new German cooperative bank entrants in October, including Raiffeisenbank Eifel eG (authorised 19 October 2026) and Volksbank Niederrhein eG (authorised 22 October 2026). The pattern means regulated crypto services are expanding through Germany's established credit institutions, in line with the factors BaFin cited for the country's high count.

Country-level counts vary between trackers partly because ESMA's register already lists some authorisations that take effect later in November. Penning, which counts only authorisations already in force, showed 117 licensed firms in Germany out of 387 EU-wide as of 6 November. For readers tracking market access, ESMA's interim register remains the official reference, while third-party trackers offer quicker but sometimes differing snapshots.

What the End of the Grace Period Means

The licence count matters because the transitional period for crypto firms has ended. In its statement on the end of transitional periods under MiCA, ESMA said the transitional period expired across the EU on 1 July 2026. After that date, any firm providing crypto-asset services to EU clients without a MiCA licence is in breach of EU law and must stop offering those services.

ESMA also asked unlicensed firms to prepare wind-down plans. Under those plans, firms should exit the market in an orderly way, notify clients and allow them to move digital assets to an authorised provider or a non-custodial wallet, ForkLog reported. For customers, that makes the register a practical screening tool: a platform not listed there can no longer lawfully serve EU clients.

ESMA maintains the interim MiCA register, which is updated every few weeks. Because new authorisations are still being added — particularly from German banks — country-level totals are likely to keep changing, and the November authorisations already on the register will shift the figures again in coming updates.

Sources

• ESMA: Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), interim MiCA register
• ESMA: Statement on the end of transitional periods under MiCA
• Binar: MiCA April 2026 EU crypto market snapshot
• Bloomingbit: Germany Extends MiCA Lead to 79 CASP Licenses
• Penning: MiCA CASP Register
• ForkLog: MiCA transitional period expires in the EU
• BSC News (original report): Germany MiCA-licensed crypto firms in ESMA register