Germany widens MiCA lead as latest EU register update adds 6 banks

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.

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.

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.