The European Securities and Markets Authority added 12 firms to its MiCA register on Jul. 31, lifting the bloc's authorized crypto provider total to 321. Key Points: ESMA's fourth post-deadli
The European Securities and Markets Authority added 12 firms to its MiCA register on Jul. 31, lifting the bloc's authorized crypto provider total to 321.
- ESMA's fourth post-deadline update brought the authorized crypto-asset service provider count to 321 across the European Economic Area.
- Three German cooperative banks, two Spanish firms and four French companies made up the bulk of the additions.
- Three more names joined the non-compliant register, which now holds 167 entries, nearly all filed by Italian authorities.
The revision was the fourth since the Markets in Crypto-Assets transitional period closed on Jul. 1. It listed three German cooperative banks, among them Volksbank Raiffeisenbank Oberbayern Südost, VR Bank Schleswig-Holstein Mitte and VR-Bank Landau-Mengkofen. Spain contributed Basque Pay and Fintech Payments, while France supplied four names: Finary, Woorton, Blockchain Process Security and Shares Financial Assets.
The regulator also moved three companies onto its separate register of non-compliant entities after action by Italy's securities watchdog, CONSOB, taking that list to 167 names. Nothing else changed.
No asset-referenced token issuer has cleared approval anywhere in the bloc so far, and the e-money token register recorded no additions either. Only firms named in the central register may legally sell custody, trading, exchange or portfolio services to clients anywhere across the European Union. Everyone else was told to wind down.
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Independent trackers verified the 321 count in early August, though tallies differ by a point or two depending on how withdrawn and expired entries get treated.
Compliance researchers who parsed the Jul. 31 file put Germany at 68 active entries, with eight of its nine additions that month arriving from regional or cooperative banks rather than exchanges.
That composition matters. The regulation allows banks, investment firms and e-money institutions to notify their home supervisor and begin offering equivalent services, a lighter route than the full authorization crypto companies must obtain.
Register growth therefore tracks traditional lenders adding digital asset desks at least as closely as it tracks legacy exchanges finishing their paperwork.
Bruna Szego, who chairs the European Union's anti-money laundering authority AMLA, warned lawmakers in July that customers fleeing unlicensed venues would strain onboarding controls at the approved firms absorbing them. Enforcement reporting skews sharply as well, since 165 of the 167 non-compliant listings came from Italian authorities, with single filings from the Netherlands and Slovakia.
The register has widened in uneven steps since the deadline passed. ESMA added 37 providers on Jul. 3 to reach 280, then 14 more by the middle of the month for a running total of 294, followed by another 15 in the update after that.
Each round has been smaller than the one before it, a pattern that cooled the early rush and left the authorized population far below the number of firms once registered under national rules.
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