Standard Chartered's MiCA passport lets it serve all 27 EU states under one license, while Tether's USDT loses regulated exchange access. ESMA's register now lists 300 authorized crypto firms.
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The end of the EU's MiCA transition period has reshaped the region's crypto market. ESMA's interim register now lists 300 authorized crypto-asset service providers, up from 243 on June 26, after 57 approvals arrived around the July 1 deadline.
Standard Chartered is the largest traditional bank on the new list. Luxembourg's CSSF granted the bank its MiCA authorization on June 25, along with an Electronic Money Institution license. That dual approval lets Standard Chartered offer crypto services across all 27 EU member states under a single authorization. The bank no longer needs separate filings in each country.
Passporting removes the biggest licensing friction that kept most traditional banks on the sidelines. A firm authorized in one member state can serve customers in any other without a second regulatory review. Standard Chartered's entry signals that the approval pipeline for global banks is open.
Institutional trading firm FalconX also entered the register after receiving authorization from Malta's Financial Services Authority just before the deadline. Digital asset bank Sygnum Europe, Ronin EM, and CACEIS, the asset servicing business owned by Crédit Agricole and Santander, made the list as well.
CACEIS is in exclusive talks to acquire French crypto investment platform Meria, a deal that would add about 150,000 users and roughly €350 million in assets under management, according to crypto.news. Meria had already obtained its own MiCA authorization in France.
The same passporting framework is attracting payment giants. Bridge, the Stripe-owned stablecoin infrastructure firm, secured both a MiCA authorization and an EMI license in Luxembourg earlier this year. That approval lets Bridge serve EU clients under a single license. Bridge's Luxembourg licenses provide a template for other non-bank entrants.
A separate consequence of the transition-period end: firms that did not obtain a MiCA license must stop onboarding new EU customers and start winding down regulated operations inside the bloc. Tether's $186 billion USDT no longer has a MiCA-compliant distribution route. Authorized exchanges including Coinbase, Kraken, and Crypto.com have removed USDT trading pairs for European users. The stablecoin remains the world's largest by market capitalization but has lost its regulated on-ramp in the EU.
For institutional investors and asset managers, ESMA's register now serves as a public reference for identifying regulated counterparties under the EU's unified framework. Passporting reduces the cost of multi-country compliance. That should accelerate listings of MiCA-compliant stablecoins and tokenized assets on European exchanges.
The full application of MiCA's stablecoin rules for asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens will further define which products can trade on regulated order books. Standard Chartered's entry marks the first time a major global bank has used the MiCA passport to offer crypto services across the EU. The next set of rules, due later this year, will determine which tokens can remain on regulated exchanges.
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