Germany increased its lead in authorizations under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) after the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) updated its register on Friday, lifting the total number of authorized crypto asset service providers (CASPs) to 331.
The latest update added six firms, and all of them were German cooperative banks. Germany now has 79 authorized CASPs, ahead of France with 35 and the Netherlands with 29.
Six newly added institutions were all based in Germany
Compared with ESMA’s Aug. 12 update, the six additions were Raiffeisenbank Aidlingen, Ihre Volksbank, VR-Bank Mittelfranken Mitte, Volksbank Euskirchen, VR Bank Ried-Überwald and Volksbank Backnang.
Each of the newly added institutions came from Germany’s cooperative banking sector.
Germany’s lead has widened since late June
According to ESMA data previously reviewed by Cointelegraph, Germany already led MiCA authorizations in late June with 57 CASPs. The latest register update pushed that figure to 79.
The new total leaves Germany further ahead of other EU countries in the MiCA authorization count.
BaFin previously explained the higher number of German authorizations
Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) told Cointelegraph in June that the country’s relatively high number of MiCA authorizations partly reflected the size of its financial sector and the number of credit institutions eligible to offer crypto services.
BaFin also said Germany’s pre-existing national licensing regime gave some CASPs access to simplified authorization procedures during the transition to MiCA.
Other ESMA datasets were unchanged
ESMA’s datasets for asset-referenced tokens (ART), electronic money tokens (EMT) and non-compliant entities did not change in the latest update.
- The ART register remained empty.
- The EMT register stayed at 43 entries.
- The non-compliant entity list remained at 167.