Germany Leads in Europe with Most MiCA Licenses Issued

Germany has strengthened its position as Europe’s leading hub for regulated crypto services after six banks received authorization under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework.

The latest additions bring the country’s total number of approved crypto asset service providers (CASPs) to 79. The EU-wide list now contains 331 authorized providers. The six banks include Volksbank Backnang, VR Bank Ried Überwald, Volksbank Euskirchen, VR Bank Mittelfranken Mitte, Raiffeisenbank Aidlingen, and Ihre Volksbank.

Germany’s tally is now more than double that of France, which has 35 authorized providers. The Netherlands ranks third with 29.

The latest figures represent a notable increase from June 29, when ESMA’s register contained 244 approved CASPs across the bloc. Germany had 57 at that point, meaning its total has risen by 22 in less than two months. Across the EU, the number of authorized providers has grown by 87 over the same period.

Germany’s strong showing reflects both the scale of its financial industry and its earlier regulatory experience with digital assets. The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, known as BaFin, previously said the country’s large banking sector contributed to the high number of MiCA applications and approvals.

Before the EU framework took effect, Germany already treated crypto custody as a regulated financial service. This meant some firms operating under the national system could use streamlined procedures when seeking authorization under MiCA.

The regulation created a unified licensing regime across EU member states. Once authorized by a national regulator, eligible providers can offer covered services in other participating countries through passporting arrangements.

MiCA covers activities such as digital asset custody, trading platforms, exchanges, order execution, portfolio management, and transfers. However, the number of licensed providers does not indicate that every firm offers the same range of services.

The growth of Germany’s cooperative banking sector in crypto has also extended to retail customers. DZ Bank has been introducing crypto trading through participating cooperative banks, enabling clients to buy and sell selected digital assets through existing banking relationships.

Meanwhile, ESMA has increased its focus on supervising firms that have already secured licenses. In July, the authority began examining crypto custodians, with attention on operational resilience, asset safeguarding, key management, incident handling and dependence on external service providers.

ESMA’s other registers were unchanged in the latest update. The list for asset-referenced tokens remained empty, while 43 electronic money token entries and 167 non-compliant entities remained recorded.

The progress that the EU is making in regulating crypto businesses uniformly across the bloc could lead North American entities like Bullish (NYSE: BLSH) to start giving serious thought to setting up shop in this large market.

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