Germany Reaches 79 CASPs, 6 Cooperative Banks Added to EU Crypto Service Provider Register

Odaily News – The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) today updated the register of Crypto-Asset Service Providers (CASPs) under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), bringing the total number of authorized CASPs in the EU to 331. All six newly added institutions are German cooperative banks: Raiffeisenbank Aidlingen, Ihre Volksbank, VR-Bank Mittelfranken Mitte, Volksbank Euskirchen, VR Bank Ried-Überwald, and Volksbank Backnang. Germany now has 79 authorized CASPs, while France and the Netherlands have 35 and 29, respectively. Since leading the EU with 57 CASPs at the end of June, Germany's authorized count has continued to rise. The German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) previously stated that the country's leading authorization numbers are linked to its large financial sector and the substantial number of credit institutions qualified to offer crypto services; the existing national licensing regime has also played a role during the transition period, allowing some CASPs to obtain authorization through a simplified process. In this update, the register for Asset-Referenced Tokens remains empty, the register for Electronic Money Tokens holds steady at 43 entries, and the list of non-compliant entities remains at 167.