MiCA Register Reveals Surprising Dominance of German Financial Institutions

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its MiCA register, which lists all platforms authorized to operate in the EU. As of August 4, 2026, there are 329 authorizations spread across 322 legal entities and 26 countries within the European Economic Area.

Germany leads the pack with 72 authorizations, followed by France (35), the Netherlands (29), Cyprus (27), and Malta (22). However, upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that Germany's dominance has little to do with crypto exchange platforms, but rather due to a large number of established financial institutions offering crypto trading as an add-on service.

Interestingly, operating a trading platform is the rarest of the ten authorized services under MiCA, appearing only 21 times in the register. In contrast, custody of crypto-assets and transfer services are the most common at 221 and 206 mentions respectively.