The European Securities and Markets Authority has published its first update to the MiCA register since the regulation's compliance deadline passed, adding 37 crypto-asset service providers to the public list. Standard Chartered, the international banking group, and FalconX, a digital-asset prime brokerage, are among the newly registered entities.
What the MiCA Register Actually Is
MiCA — the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation — is the European Union's rulebook for companies offering crypto services to customers within the bloc. ESMA, the EU's securities watchdog, maintains a public register of firms that have received authorisation under the framework. Appearing on that list means a provider has cleared the regulator's licensing requirements; absent from the list means the opposite.
That distinction carries weight. The register is a credibility filter for institutional counterparties conducting due diligence, legal teams assessing exposure, and retail customers trying to identify legitimate, regulated options in a market that has historically rewarded opacity. A post-deadline update is also a signal that the regulatory machinery is functioning: authorisations are being processed and publicly recorded.
Who Made the Cut
The 37 new additions include firms from both traditional finance and the crypto-native world. Standard Chartered's entry is the headline item. The bank is a large, globally regulated institution subject to existing financial supervision in multiple jurisdictions, yet it still needed MiCA authorisation to operate as a crypto-asset service provider inside the EU. Its presence on the list confirms it has completed that process.
FalconX, which focuses on institutional digital-asset clients, represents the other side of the cohort — a firm built specifically for crypto markets that is now working through the same compliance queue as incumbent banks.
The source does not name the remaining 35 entrants or specify which categories of crypto-asset services each authorised firm is permitted to offer.
What This Update Signals
The composition of this first post-deadline cohort points in a clear direction: regulated institutions are not sitting on the sidelines while the MiCA market structure settles. Standard Chartered's authorisation, in particular, suggests that large banks view EU regulatory standing as necessary infrastructure, not an optional enhancement.
For firms not yet on the register, the clock is running. The update makes visible who has cleared the bar and who has not — a transparency mechanism that will become more consequential as EU counterparties and clients start using the register to screen their business relationships.
ESMA has not indicated when the next register update will follow.