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Bridge Gets Dual EU License as MiCA Register Hits 324 Providers

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Bridge Gets Dual EU License as MiCA Register Hits 324 Providers

2026-08-08 03:06 UTCBy AlphaScala Research DeskSource reporting: The Currency AnalyticsEditorial standards

Bridge Gets Dual EU License as MiCA Register Hits 324 Providers

Bridge Building secured both a CASP and EMI license from Luxembourg's CSSF, joining 324 providers on the EU MiCA register. Three German cooperative banks also added.

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Stripe's stablecoin arm just cleared the highest regulatory bar in the European Union. Bridge Building, the Luxembourg entity behind the platform, received both a Crypto-Asset Service Provider authorization and an Electronic Money Institution license from the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier. The European Securities and Markets Authority has added the company to the official EU MiCA register.

The dual approval gives Bridge a wider runway than a single license would. The EMI piece covers issuance of electronic money tokens, the core of what stablecoin infrastructure firms do. Getting both from Luxembourg in one sweep is the cleanest entry point into the EU market available right now, according to Mai Leduc Blount, Bridge's Head of Product.

Stripe bought Bridge to strengthen its stablecoin rails. The Luxembourg approvals carry weight beyond Bridge itself. A regulated EU footprint makes Stripe's crypto-adjacent payments story more credible to enterprise clients that cannot touch anything non-compliant.

Bridge joins a register that is growing quickly. The total count of electronic money token issuers in the EU register now sits at 42. The number of Crypto-Asset Service Providers stands at 324, up from the previous count after ESMA's latest batch of additions.

Germany added three names to the CASP list in the same update. Volksbank Die Gestalterbank, VBU Volksbank im Unterland, and VR-Bank Erding all landed new entries. Three German cooperative banks joining a crypto register in one shot says something about where traditional European banking is heading with digital asset services, even if none of them are splashy fintech names.

The ART segment of the register stayed flat, with no new asset-referenced token authorizations. The list of non-compliant crypto asset companies did not change either, with no additions and no removals.

ESMA has updated the MiCA register more frequently lately, with several rounds of changes in July alone. That pace is faster than the early months of the framework, when updates were sparse and the register moved slowly. It is not clear whether the July acceleration was a one-time processing catch-up or a sign of a more active review pipeline.

For developers and fintechs building on stablecoin rails, Bridge's regulated status matters. It is one thing to use infrastructure from a well-funded startup. It is another to use infrastructure from a company holding an EMI license in a major EU jurisdiction with full MiCA compliance. The compliance overhead for clients drops significantly when the underlying provider is already authorized.

Stablecoin infrastructure companies have been targeting EU regulatory status aggressively since MiCA's full rollout, knowing that enterprise and institutional clients in Europe basically cannot use unlicensed providers for anything touching payments. Getting into the register early locks in credibility before the market gets more crowded.

The 42 EMT issuers in the register is still a small number given how many stablecoin-adjacent projects exist globally. The list is growing. ESMA's willingness to keep updating the register at a faster clip probably means that number moves higher through the rest of the year.

Germany's three new CASPs are a reminder that the register is not just a fintech story. Traditional banking institutions are showing up too, which changes the competitive picture for pure-play crypto companies that assumed MiCA would mostly be their territory. The Volksbanks of Europe are filing paperwork right alongside the stablecoin startups.

What Bridge does next with its dual authorization, whether it moves quickly to onboard EU clients or takes a slower ramp, is not detailed in the announcement. Leduc Blount's comment focused on what the approvals enable rather than specific launch timelines. No details yet on which EU markets Bridge plans to prioritize first.

The register now stands at 324 CASPs and 42 EMT issuers, with no new ART authorizations and no changes to the non-compliant list.