MiCA license holders rise to 331, with all new additions coming from German cooperative banks.

ME News reports that, as of August 24 (UTC+8), the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) updated its MiCA registration data last Friday, raising the total number of authorized Crypto-Asset Service Providers (CASPs) to 331. Compared to the August 12 update, six new CASPs were added—all German cooperative banks: Raiffeisenbank Aidlingen, Ihre Volksbank, VR-Bank Mittelfranken Mitte, Volksbank Euskirchen, VR Bank Ried-Überwald, and Volksbank Backnang. Germany’s total number of licensed CASPs has now increased to 79, surpassing France’s 35 and the Netherlands’ 29. Since reaching 57 licensed CASPs at the end of June, Germany’s number has continued to grow, maintaining its lead in MiCA authorizations. Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) previously told Cointelegraph that the high number of German MiCA licenses is partly due to the country’s large financial sector and the significant number of credit institutions eligible to offer crypto services. Additionally, Germany’s pre-existing national licensing regime allowed certain service providers to obtain authorization through a streamlined transition process. ESMA also disclosed that the lists for Asset-Referenced Tokens (ART), Electronic Money Tokens (EMT), and non-compliant entities remained unchanged: the ART registry remains empty, the EMT registry continues at 43 entries, and the non-compliant entities list stands at 167. (Source: Foresight News)