Germany Takes Lead in Europe’s MiCA Crypto Licensing With 57 CASPs Ahead of Deadline

Uneven crypto-asset licensing is being created across member states and the European Economic Area (EEA) by the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation adopted by the European Union (EU), as Germany leads the licensing race that will come into effect on Wednesday. According to ESMA's interim register, prepared on Friday, Germany is home to 57 crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) that hold the MiCA authorisation, representing around 23 percent of the 244 CASPs that have been authorised. France follows with 26 CASPs, which make up around 11 percent of the total number of authorisations, and is followed by the Netherlands in the third position.

ESMA Data Highlights Uneven Adoption Across EU Member States

Germany tops in MiCA licensing overall, but France has stepped up its approvals in recent days and accounts for the majority of late authorisations. ESMA interim figures show that five CASP approvals have been given by France from June 18 to June 22, which is the most in that period. The number of approvals granted within EU and EEA countries amounted to 11, with Malta second to France, with 2 approvals. The approvals granted by France include CASPs like Bpifrance Investissement, RCUBE Asset Management, Paymium, Leonod, and Meria.

The pattern indicates that while MiCA aims at creating a common crypto market in Europe, there is still fragmentation of its adoption by the national authorities before the July 1st deadline. Five member states of the EU, including Greece, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, and Romania, have not given out any MiCA licenses as of June 26, based on the ESMA interim register.

One of the world's top exchanges, Binance, has also withdrawn for MiCA licensing with the Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC), Greece, and plans on applying for licensing in some other member state. Meanwhile, several other exchanges, such as OpenPayd, a financial infrastructure company, announced that it received authorisation from the EU. The firm is now able to provide crypto services within the EEA through passporting. 

Kanga, a cryptocurrency exchange platform based in Poland, also announced that it has received a licence from Latvia for MiCA. SIA AlphaRoute, which trades as Kanga Exchange EU, has been issued a MiCA Class 3 license by the Bank of Latvia following the authorisation decision made by its Supervisory Committee. 

While the Lithuania-based crypto exchange, WhiteBIT, has also secured the licence from the Austrian Financial Market Authority. Therefore, WhiteBIT is permitted to provide crypto services across the entire EEA with a single permit.