ESMA Updates MiCA Register After Transition Deadline, Adds Standard Chartered and 36 Other Newly Authorized CASPs

ESMA has released its first update to the EU's interim MiCA register following the end of the regulation's transition period on Wednesday, adding 37 newly authorized cryptoasset service providers (CASPs). The Friday publication lifts the interim total to 280 firms. Standard Chartered is among the new entrants. The bank received MiCA authorization from Luxembourg regulators on June 25. It also obtained an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license, allowing it to issue electronic money and offer payment services. In a statement issued Monday, Standard Chartered described the approvals as a "key step" in advancing its European digital-asset strategy, citing client demand for regulated access to digital assets in Europe and pointing to earlier milestones such as launching digital-asset custody services in Asia and the Middle East. ESMA's interim MiCA register increased to 280 CASPs from 243 in the prior update dated June 26. The latest additions span a mix of business models and include digital-asset firms such as FalconX, Sygnum Europe, and Ronin EM, alongside more traditional financial institutions now cleared to provide MiCA-regulated crypto services. The update also matters for market participants because the public CASP list offers a practical checkpoint for regulated access when assessing counterparties. For banks, prime brokers, and other service providers, MiCA permissions can serve as an operational prerequisite for working under a standardized EU framework instead of relying on fragmented member-state regimes. Beyond CASPs, ESMA's electronic money token (EMT) register added Crédit Agricole's CACEIS in the Friday update. Authorizations continue to be issued by national regulators, and the latest batch was led by Cyprus, which accounted for six of the newly listed CASPs. France added five, as did Italy and Malta. The Czech Republic and Spain each added four. Luxembourg listed three, the Netherlands added two, and Germany, Liechtenstein, and Latvia each contributed one. ESMA noted that Cyprus' CySEC has now granted 21 MiCA authorizations in total, while Germany's BaFin remains the most active authority with 58 authorizations. The distribution offers insight into where licensing pipelines may be moving faster, which can influence where firms choose to apply. Two parts of ESMA's broader register were unchanged. The asset-referenced token (ART) register still shows no approved issuers, and the list of noncompliant entities remained at 162. The contrast underscores that different areas of the MiCA framework are progressing at different speeds, with CASP licensing advancing while ART issuer approvals have yet to appear.