Germany has widened its lead in the number of providers licensed under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) after six cooperative banks were added in the latest register update.
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) updated its MiCA register on Friday, bringing the total number of authorized crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) to 331. Compared to the previous update on Aug. 12, the six new additions consist entirely of German cooperative banks: Raiffeisenbank Aidlingen, Ihre Volksbank, VR-Bank Mittelfranken Mitte, Volksbank Euskirchen, VR Bank Ried-Überwald, and Volksbank Backnang.
With these additions, Germany now accounts for 79 authorized CASPs, maintaining its position ahead of France with 35 and the Netherlands with 29. Germany's total has grown from 57 in late June, when the country already held the lead in MiCA authorizations according to prior ESMA data.
Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) previously noted that the country's high authorization count partly reflects its large financial sector and the volume of credit institutions eligible to offer crypto services. BaFin also pointed to Germany's pre-existing national licensing regime, which provided certain CASPs with access to simplified authorization procedures during the transition to MiCA.
Meanwhile, other datasets in the ESMA register remained unchanged. The asset-referenced token (ART) register stayed empty, the electronic money token (EMT) register held 43 entries, and the non-compliant entity list remained at 167 entries.
