ESMA adds 14 MiCA licenses, lifting authorized CASPs to 294
Ripple Payments Europe and multiple banks joined the list as additions slowed from 37 on July 3 to 14 on July 16.
ESMA’s July 16 interim MiCA register update added 14 newly authorized crypto-asset service providers, bringing the total to 294. The smaller batch follows a July 3 surge and came alongside two new entries on ESMA’s non-compliant list.
Key Takeaways
- ESMA’s July 16 interim MiCA register update added 14 newly authorized crypto-asset service providers, taking the total to 294.
- The prior post-deadline update on July 3 added 37 CASPs, leaving the latest refresh as a clear step down in week-to-week additions.
- Ripple Payments Europe and several banks were among the new authorizations, extending the mix of crypto-native and traditional finance names on the register.
- The EMT and ART issuer registers were unchanged, while ESMA’s non-compliant list expanded to 164 entries after two additions tied to Italian regulator actions.
ESMA’s July 16 MiCA Register Update Lifts Licensed CASPs to 294
The European Securities and Markets Authority updated its interim Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) register on July 16, adding 14 crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) and lifting the total number of licensed CASPs to 294.
For EU-facing trading and market structure, the register functions as a live map of which venues and service providers can legally offer regulated crypto services across the bloc. The July 16 update also kept ESMA’s token-issuer registers static and expanded the separate non-compliant list, reinforcing that authorization and enforcement are moving in parallel.
Ripple Payments Europe and Banks Join the Authorized CASP List
The new entries included Ripple Payments Europe, Ripple’s European payments arm. Alongside it, several banks were added, including Portugal-based Bison Bank and Croatia’s state-owned Hrvatska poštanska banka (HPB).
Germany’s cooperative banking segment also appeared in the additions, with Volksbank Schwarzwald-Donau-Neckar and Raiffeisenbank Auerbach-Freihung joining the authorized population. Liechtenstein-based Kaiser Partner Privatbank was also added.
The composition matters. The presence of Ripple Payments Europe next to multiple banks underlines that MiCA-authorized crypto services are not confined to crypto-native firms. ESMA’s register already contains traditional finance institutions such as BBVA, CaixaBank, Commerzbank, CACEIS Bank, and Standard Chartered Luxembourg, and the July 16 batch keeps that trend intact.
Post-Deadline Licensing Pace Cools From +37 to +14
The July 16 update follows ESMA’s July 3 post-deadline expansion, when 37 CASPs were added after MiCA’s transitional period ended. Against that benchmark, the latest +14 reads as a cooling in visible licensing throughput.
Traders should treat the week-to-week drop as a narrative input rather than a single decisive signal. The data set here is two post-deadline prints, and ESMA has not provided a detailed explanation for the slower pace. Still, the cadence shift can influence how quickly market participants expect new EU-compliant venues, custodians, and brokers to come online, which feeds into assumptions about liquidity migration and counterparty availability.
On the token side, ESMA reported no changes to its electronic money token (EMT) and asset-referenced token (ART) registers. The EMT register remained at 21 unique issuers, and the ART register continued to show no approved issuers, signaling no new public progress in stablecoin-issuer approvals in this update cycle.
ESMA also added Reversal Investment Group and Kortex to its non-compliant register following actions by Italy’s securities regulator CONSOB. That list now totals 164 entries and includes MEXC, a reminder that compliance screening remains a live constraint for EU-facing flows.
Signals to Watch for ESMA adds 14 MiCA CASPs, pace
The next interim ESMA update is the immediate tell. The size of net new CASP additions will show whether July 16 was a one-off lull or the start of a slower post-deadline run-rate relative to July 3’s +37.
Stablecoin plumbing is the other pressure point. Any change in the EMT issuer count (21 unique issuers) or movement in the ART register (still no approved issuers) would be a meaningful shift for EU-regulated distribution narratives.
Enforcement risk is also trending. Further additions to the non-compliant register (164 entries) and whether new entries are driven by regulators beyond CONSOB will matter for venue access assumptions and counterparty policies.
Finally, watch the mix of new authorizations. More large payment firms or major EU banks appearing in upcoming CASP additions would signal broader TradFi participation under MiCA, with second-order effects on fiat rails, custody partnerships, and where liquidity concentrates.
What the Slower Cadence Could Mean for EU Market Access Narratives
I treat the +37 to +14 step-down as a sentiment catalyst more than a fundamental shift. The threshold that matters is whether the next ESMA updates revert toward the July 3 pace or keep printing smaller batches, because that is what will anchor expectations for how quickly EU-compliant capacity expands.
The real test is whether TradFi participation keeps showing up alongside crypto-native firms while the EMT and ART registers remain stuck. If bank and payments names continue to populate the CASP list but stablecoin issuer approvals do not move, the setup starts to look structural rather than narrative-driven, with market access broadening faster than the regulated token layer that often drives settlement and on-ramp efficiency.
