Germany Widens Lead in EU MiCA Licensing With 79 Crypto Companies
Key Takeaways
- •ESMA’s latest MiCA register update increased the total number of authorized crypto asset service providers in the EU to 331.
- •Germany added six cooperative banks to the register, all from the Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken network.
- •Germany now has 79 authorized CASPs, more than France’s 35 and the Netherlands’ 29.
- •BaFin said Germany’s large financial sector and existing national licensing regime help explain the country’s high number of MiCA authorizations.
- •ESMA’s ART register remained empty, the EMT register contained 43 entries, and the non-compliant entity list stayed at 167.
Germany widened its lead in the number of providers licensed under the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), with six of its cooperative banks added in the latest register update.
MiCA, which has applied across the EU since the end of December 2024, created a harmonized authorization regime under which a provider licensed in one member state can passport its services throughout the bloc, which is why the distribution of CASP licenses across member states is watched as a measure of where regulated crypto services are being offered inside the EU.
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) updated its MiCA register on Friday, bringing the number of authorized crypto asset service providers (CASPs) to 331.
Compared with an update from Aug. 12, the six additions were all German cooperative banks: Raiffeisenbank Aidlingen, Ihre Volksbank, VR-Bank Mittelfranken Mitte, Volksbank Euskirchen, VR Bank Ried-Überwald and Volksbank Backnang. The lenders belong to Germany's Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken cooperative network, one of the three pillars of the country's banking sector alongside private banks and public savings banks, and their addition brings mainstream retail banking institutions further into the MiCA-licensed pool.
Germany now accounts for 79 CASPs, ahead of France with 35 and the Netherlands with 29. Germany's total has grown from 57 in late June, when the country already led MiCA authorizations, according to ESMA data previously reviewed by Cointelegraph.
Germany's Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) told Cointelegraph in June that the country's high number of MiCA authorizations partly reflects its large financial sector and the number of credit institutions eligible to offer crypto services. BaFin also pointed to Germany's pre-existing national licensing regime, which gave some CASPs access to simplified authorization procedures during the transition to MiCA. Under MiCA's transitional provisions, member states can operate such transition windows for up to 18 months after the regulation took full effect, a period that can run to mid-2026.
ESMA's asset-referenced token (ART), electronic money token (EMT) and non-compliant entity datasets were unchanged. The ART register remained empty, the EMT register held 43 entries, and the non-compliant entity list remained at 167.
Related: Bitpanda fined in Austria's first published MiCA penalty
