Germany has extended its lead in European Union MiCA authorizations after six cooperative banks joined the latest register, taking the country’s total number of licensed crypto asset service providers to 79.
Summary
- Six German cooperative banks were added to ESMA’s latest MiCA register.
- Germany now leads the EU with 79 authorized CASPs, ahead of France with 35 and the Netherlands with 29.
- The EU’s total number of authorized crypto asset service providers has increased to 331.
- ESMA’s token and non compliant entity registers remained unchanged.
The European Securities and Markets Authority updated its interim Markets in Crypto Assets register on Friday, raising the number of authorized crypto asset service providers, or CASPs, across Europe to 331.
Compared with ESMA’s Aug. 12 update, all six newly added providers were German cooperative banks: Raiffeisenbank Aidlingen, Ihre Volksbank, VR Bank Mittelfranken Mitte, Volksbank Euskirchen, VR Bank Ried Überwald and Volksbank Backnang.
Germany now has more than twice as many authorized CASPs as France, which ranks second with 35, while the Netherlands follows with 29.
Germany’s MiCA lead has widened since June
Germany already held the top position before the latest additions. In late June, the country had 57 licensed providers, representing about 23% of the EU total at the time.
As crypto.news previously reported, ESMA’s register contained 244 valid MiCA licenses as of June 29, with Germany and France accounting for more than one third of the authorizations then issued across the bloc.
The latest count means Germany has added 22 authorized providers since that late June snapshot, while the overall European register has increased by 87.
Licensing continued after the July 1 end of MiCA’s transitional arrangements. By July 23, ESMA had recorded 309 authorized providers after another 15 CASPs entered the register.
Among that group were four German entries, including Raiffeisenbank Falkenstein Wörth, Spar und Kreditbank Rheinstetten, VR Bank Augsburg Ostallgäu and JT Technologies. BNY’s Belgian banking subsidiary also joined during the same update after receiving authorization for crypto custody and transfer services, according to previous register coverage.
Cooperative banks add to Germany’s MiCA count
The latest six approvals add another group of cooperative banks to a German licensing pool that already includes several institutions from the same banking network.
Germany’s cooperative banking sector has also started expanding direct access to cryptocurrencies for retail customers. A July report showed that DZ Bank had begun rolling out crypto trading through participating cooperative banks, allowing customers to buy and sell digital assets through their existing banking relationships.
DZ Bank had received BaFin approval under the MiCA framework in January for its meinKrypto platform following about a year of trials. The service was prepared with support for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Cardano, while Boerse Stuttgart Digital was selected to handle custody.
Through the setup, participating cooperative banks can provide crypto trading within their existing customer services instead of requiring users to open separate accounts with cryptocurrency exchanges.
Germany’s licensing numbers include institutions whose permitted crypto activities differ by authorization and business model, meaning the CASP total does not show how many providers offer the same set of services.
MiCA covers several categories of crypto activity, including custody, operation of trading platforms, exchange of crypto assets for funds or other crypto assets, execution of client orders, portfolio management and transfer services.
BaFin links Germany’s lead to its financial sector
Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, BaFin, told Cointelegraph in June that the country’s high number of MiCA authorizations partly stems from the size of its financial sector and the number of credit institutions eligible to provide crypto services.
BaFin also pointed to Germany’s regulatory system before MiCA. Providers that had already operated under the country’s national licensing framework could, in some cases, use simplified procedures when seeking authorization under the EU rules.
Germany had classified crypto custody as a regulated financial service before MiCA became fully applicable, leaving the regulator with an existing supervisory framework for companies moving into the European regime.
MiCA introduced a common authorization system for crypto service providers across EU member states. Once approved by a national competent authority, a CASP can use passporting rights to provide covered services in other parts of the bloc after completing the required notification process.
The regulation entered full application at the end of 2024, although transitional arrangements allowed eligible companies operating under earlier national regimes to continue for a limited period.
Those arrangements reached their final deadline on July 1, 2026. Earlier reporting on the MiCA transition deadline found that providers without the required authorization could no longer rely on previous national registrations to continue covered services once their transition periods expired.
The authorization register consequently became an important reference for firms and customers checking which providers had secured permission under the common EU framework.
ESMA’s other MiCA registers remain unchanged
While the CASP list has continued to expand, ESMA made no changes in its latest update to the datasets covering asset referenced tokens, electronic money tokens and non compliant entities.
The asset referenced token register remained empty, while the electronic money token register continued to contain 43 entries.
ESMA’s list of non compliant entities also remained at 167.
The CASP register, by comparison, has continued climbing since late June. Authorized providers increased from 244 on June 29 to 309 by July 23 before reaching 331 in the latest update.
Regulatory work has also moved into supervision of companies that have already received licenses. In July, ESMA launched a review of MiCA authorized crypto custodians covering operational resilience, custody controls, key management, incident response procedures and risks involving third party service providers.
For the latest German additions, ESMA’s register identifies Raiffeisenbank Aidlingen, Ihre Volksbank, VR Bank Mittelfranken Mitte, Volksbank Euskirchen, VR Bank Ried Überwald and Volksbank Backnang as the six entries added since Aug. 12, leaving Germany with 79 authorized CASPs compared with France’s 35 and the Netherlands’ 29.
