The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has added 12 new firms to its Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) register, bringing the total number of authorized crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) across Europe to 321. The update, published on July 31, marks the fourth revision since the July 1 transitional deadline, after which unlicensed providers must stop onboarding new EU clients.
The latest authorizations highlight a diverse mix of traditional and crypto-native institutions. Three German cooperative banks—Volksbank Raiffeisenbank Oberbayern Südost, VR Bank Schleswig-Holstein Mitte, and VR-Bank Landau-Mengkofen—joined the list, alongside Spanish firms Basque Pay and Fintech Payments, and French entities Finary, Woorton, Blockchain Process Security, and Shares Financial Assets. This blend of regional banks and specialized fintechs signals that MiCA is evolving into a cross-sector operating framework, not a niche compliance exercise.
Simultaneously, ESMA’s non-compliant register grew by three names—Cervo Rendisco, Flandenzo, and Corona Fondenza—flagged by Italy’s CONSOB, pushing that list to 167 entries. This dual expansion highlights the regulator’s approach of building both an authorized directory and a public warning mechanism.
On August 5, the MiCA Crypto Alliance, co-founded by Hedera, Ripple, and the Aptos Foundation, launched a searchable CASP tracker at CASPTracker.eu. The tool aggregates ESMA’s authorization data into a user-friendly, filterable directory that now shows 324 licensed providers across 30 EU/EEA jurisdictions. The tracker allows filtering by company name, country, regulator, and licensed service type—revealing that authorization for custody does not automatically grant exchange operation rights, and vice versa. Germany leads with 69 licensed firms, followed by France (35), Netherlands (29), Cyprus (25), and Malta (22).
The independent tracker also makes it easier to identify major platforms that have not yet secured full MiCA authorization, such as Binance and MEXC, while confirming licenses for Bybit, Kraken, OKX, and Bitpanda. With the transition period ended and hundreds of firms still potentially operating under old national frameworks, the tracker turns compliance data into a consumer-facing tool, likely intensifying pressure on unlicensed operators.
