MiCA Register Expands by 14 CASPs as ESMA Growth Rate Decelerates
The total number of providers reaches 294 as ESMA incorporates 14 additional CASPs into its MiCA register, including Ripple Payments Europe and traditional banking institutions.
In the second update released after the compliance deadline, European regulatory bodies incorporated 14 cryptocurrency firms into the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework register, indicating a deceleration in licensing activity following the initial rush.
On Thursday, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) refreshed its interim MiCA register, pushing the total count of authorized crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) to 294.
Among the latest additions are Ripple Payments Europe, which serves as the European payments division of the Ripple blockchain firm, alongside Bison Bank operating from Portugal and the Croatian government-owned institution, Hrvatska poštanska banka (HPB).
This register update comes after ESMA's earlier expansion on July 3, during which the regulatory authority incorporated 37 CASPs in the initial significant post-deadline update following the conclusion of MiCA's transitional period.
Banks deepen MiCA presence
Multiple recently added entities demonstrate the ongoing integration of conventional financial organizations into Europe's regulated cryptocurrency marketplace.
Beyond Bison Bank and HPB, the MiCA register incorporated two German cooperative banking institutions, specifically Volksbank Schwarzwald-Donau-Neckar and Raiffeisenbank Auerbach-Freihung.
The latest update also brought in Kaiser Partner Privatbank, which operates from Liechtenstein, further extending the representation of private banking entities providing regulated cryptocurrency services in accordance with MiCA.
The register includes numerous traditional financial sector organizations, such as Spain's BBVA and CaixaBank, Germany's Commerzbank, France's CACEIS Bank and Standard Chartered Luxembourg.
EMT and ART registers remain unchanged
ESMA documented no modifications to its registers tracking electronic money tokens (EMTs), which represent a category of crypto-assets engineered to preserve a stable value relative to a single official currency, or asset-referenced tokens (ARTs), which maintain linkage to multiple assets including currencies or commodities.
According to the most recent update, the EMT register contained 21 unique issuers, whereas the ART register maintained its position with no approved issuers listed.
The regulatory authority also incorporated two entities into its non-compliant register as a result of enforcement actions taken by Italy's securities regulatory body, the Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (CONSOB).
The newly included entities were Reversal Investment Group and Kortex, elevating the total count of entries on the non-compliant list to 164, which also includes crypto exchange MEXC.