The MiCA Register at 309: The Newest Entrants Are Banks
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A slow regulatory weekend still closed on a clear structural signal.In an update published on 24 July, ESMA added its third post-deadline batch to the interim MiCA register, adding 15 newly authorised crypto-asset service providers and bringing the total to 309 entries. The headline entry is BNY SA/NV, the Belgian subsidiary of BNY Mellon, the largest custodian in the world, and among the earliest globally systemically important banks to offer regulated digital asset custody, a service it launched in the United States in October 2022. The additions include four banking institutions in total, among them three German cooperative lenders, Spar-und Kreditbank Rheinstetten, VR-Bank Augsburg-Ostallgäu and Raiffeisenbank Falkenstein-Wörth, alongside payments processor BitPay, authorised through the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets. By jurisdiction, Germany contributed four of the fifteen and Denmark three, with Bulgaria and Latvia adding two each, and Belgium, Cyprus, Liechtenstein and the Netherlands one each.
The pace tells its own story. The register listed roughly 243 authorised CASPs as of late June, days before the grandfathering period expired. The first post-deadline update on 3 July added 37 to reach 280, the second on 16 July added 14 to reach 294, and this one added 15. That marks 66 authorisations in a little over three weeks. ESMA republishes the register weekly as national competent authorities feed approvals in, meaning the licensed market continues to be redrawn well beyond the deadline.
The composition marks a shift from the pre-deadline period, when the register filled largely with exchanges racing to retain retail order flow. Most of the non-bank firms in this batch operate payments, settlement or infrastructure services; few are trading venues. Most of the German cooperative lenders already on the register hold BaFin authorisation for a single service, the execution of orders for crypto-assets on behalf of clients, which allows retail customers to buy crypto through the bank they already use.
The scale of the filtering remains the essential context: the authorised population represents a small fraction of the firms that were serving EU customers under national regimes before the deadline. The register's steady growth since then shows authorisation continues at a controlled pace beyond the deadline. Meanwhile, the stablecoin registers have not moved in weeks, a reminder of how much of the framework is still waiting to be switched on.
What to watch:
- The MiCA register is republished weekly, so the perimeter will continue to shift through the second half of 2026. The register remains the single authoritative reference for which firms may lawfully operate, and it changes each week.
- The European Commission's MiCA review consultation remains open until 30 September 2026, extended from the original 31 August deadline. The Alliance is preparing its response and welcomes input from members.
- ESMA's first common supervisory action under MiCA, launched on 8 July and focused on how CASPs safeguard client crypto, will consolidate into findings expected in 2027.
