Mica Era Europe's New Crypto Landscape, Why is Germany Taking Center Stage?

Author: Zen, PANews

As the MiCA transitional arrangements come to a close, Europe's crypto industry has undergone a major institutional shake-up. Now that MiCA is fully in force, platforms that previously served European users through local registrations, regulatory gaps, or transitional arrangements in individual member states must be reintegrated into the unified EU framework and obtain a Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) authorization in order to continue operating compliantly.

According to the Financial Times, as of July 1, only about 12% of crypto companies in the EU have been approved to continue operating under the new rules, with 244 authorized institutions. More platforms that failed to secure authorization in time have had to suspend their crypto-asset services and exit the main table of the European compliant market.

On this new table, Germany stands out prominently. Germany currently has 57 MiCA-authorized crypto-asset service providers, accounting for about 23% of the 244 EU authorizations, far ahead of other EU member states. Since MiCA allows licensed institutions to provide services across borders within the EU, this means Germany is not only one of the member states with the highest number of licenses but is also becoming an important compliance gateway for European crypto platforms entering the unified market.

Moreover, Germany is not just a market with a leading number of licenses; it is more like a convergence point in the re-layering of European crypto finance, moving from a regulatory entry point further toward a banking distribution entry point and a participant in digital financial infrastructure.

Functional regulation enables a smooth transition to MiCA

Before the EU unified framework was implemented, Germany had already incorporated the issuance, trading, brokerage, custody, and market order of crypto assets into different regulatory systems such as banking, securities, payments, and capital markets, based on functional regulation. Precisely because of this functional regulatory foundation, when MiCA gathered the scattered rules into a unified EU framework, Germany was able to quickly adopt the new rules and push its original local compliance pathways to extend across Europe.

Before MiCA was formally implemented, Germany already had multiple crypto trading entry points for retail users and institutional clients. These early platforms were not entirely outside regulation; instead, they were embedded into Germany's existing financial service system through licensed banks and agent structures.

For example, Bitcoin.de, an early Bitcoin matching platform in Germany, operated by Bitcoin Deutschland AG, conducted its investment brokerage business as a "bound agent" of Fidor Bank. This is an operation in German financial regulation that relies on a licensed bank to conduct business: the agent itself can be an independent company or individual, but can only carry out specific business on behalf of a licensed financial institution. Fidor Bank, as a German licensed bank, acted as the liable party in this structure, bearing corresponding regulatory responsibilities.

Unlike the "embedded" compliance pathway, the Stuttgart Stock Exchange Group, operator of the German stock exchange, chose to go directly into the market, attempting to bring crypto-asset trading into its own exchange, brokerage, and custody systems. In 2019, the group launched BISON, a crypto trading app for retail users, offering a relatively simple buying and selling entry point. That same year, the group also launched BSDEX, Germany's first regulated digital asset trading platform, using an order book and fixed trading rules, targeting more professional investors.

In addition to local platforms, Germany's regulatory framework also attracted international platforms. A typical example is Coinbase Germany, launched by Coinbase in Germany. In 2021, Coinbase Germany obtained a crypto custody and trading license from BaFin. BaFin is the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, responsible for regulating banking, securities, insurance, and some crypto financial services. The license belongs to the new crypto regulatory system introduced in Germany in 2020, covering crypto custody and trading.

These cases collectively show that before MiCA was implemented, the focus of German regulators was on splitting and judging the businesses of platforms. This involved multiple traditional German financial laws, such as the German Banking Act, the German Securities Trading Act, and the payment services regulatory framework. BaFin's early documents on token classification also reflected this functional regulatory approach. It noted that whether a token constitutes a financial instrument, security, capital investment, or investment fund share must be judged on a case-by-case basis according to its specific structure and economic function.

Therefore, although Germany's regulatory foundation is not fully mature or perfect, by splitting the key businesses of crypto platforms into the traditional financial legal system, it has already "trained" a group of institutions in customer due diligence, organizational governance, risk control, and regulatory reporting capabilities. It may not be the most lenient regulatory market, but it wins in terms of clear rule pathways, relatively complete financial infrastructure, and predictable regulatory experience. For new platforms hoping to enter the European market, this is precisely where Germany's appeal lies.

Banks become a direct entry point for crypto services in Germany

In many global crypto markets, traditional banking systems often keep a distance from or even oppose the crypto industry. In the development of Germany's crypto market, banks are not only participants in the compliance chain but have even become the entry point for users to access crypto assets.

Early on, Fidor Bank participated in the compliance structure of local platforms through its cooperation with Bitcoin.de. Later, as the regulatory framework gradually became clearer, traditional financial institutions such as Commerzbank and DekaBank successively deployed in crypto custody, trading, and institutional services.

It can be said that the trend of banks moving from behind the scenes to the forefront was already taking shape. The implementation of MiCA has further accelerated this transformation, allowing crypto services to enter banks' own retail channels more quickly, becoming a new entry point directly accessible to ordinary users.

The most direct example is DZ Bank, the central cooperative bank in Germany, which is the core bank of the German cooperative financial system and the second largest bank in Germany by asset size. In January 2026, DZ Bank announced that it had received a MiCAR authorization from BaFin to launch a crypto-asset service called "meinKrypto."

This product is designed as a wallet and trading entry point integrated into the VR Banking App, targeting self-directed customers rather than being part of private banking investment advice. After cooperative banks complete their own MiCAR notification and go live with the relevant features, their customers can invest in crypto assets through the familiar banking app.

Another pathway comes from the German savings bank system, Sparkassen. Sparkassen are a financial network of public savings banks across Germany, covering numerous local bank branches and individual customers. As an important securities service and asset management institution within this system, DekaBank is often referred to as the "securities company" or capital market service platform of the savings bank system.

According to public plans, the German savings bank system will offer private customers trading services for crypto assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum through the DekaBank platform within the mobile banking app, targeting a launch in summer 2026.

The significance of such changes lies in the transformation of the distribution method of crypto services. For ordinary users, crypto assets are no longer just high-risk products on external trading platforms; they are placed within banking apps, customer accounts, and existing compliance processes.

From trading hub to European digital asset infrastructure hub

If trading platform licenses address "who can compliantly provide crypto services," and banking apps address "where ordinary users access crypto assets," then a deeper question is: who will issue, custody, and settle on-chain assets in the future, and through what payment and settlement instruments will they enter the capital market system? Germany's crypto layout is extending from trading and retail entry points further into such underlying financial infrastructure.

Deutsche Börse Group is Germany's core exchange and market infrastructure group, covering trading, clearing, data indices, investment management solutions, and post-trade services. Its subsidiary Clearstream handles post-trade business, primarily responsible for settlement, custody, and asset services after securities transactions — essentially the back-end infrastructure that ensures transactions are truly completed and asset rights are continuously managed.

In June 2026, Clearstream announced the launch of a next-generation digital securities infrastructure, planned to go live in phases between 2026 and 2027. According to its announcement, the platform will cover the entire securities lifecycle, including issuance, distribution, settlement, custody, asset services, liquidity, and financing, serving both traditional securities and tokenized securities, and targeting assets under the MiFID and MiCA frameworks. Clearstream also stated that the platform will support institutional clients in accessing blockchain technology, crypto assets, stablecoins, and security tokens, and explore scenarios such as on-chain settlement, large-scale tokenization of securities, and collateral reuse of the same asset across multiple transactions.

For market infrastructure institutions like Deutsche Börse and Clearstream, tokenized securities, stablecoins, and crypto assets are being incorporated into a broader upgrade of capital market infrastructure. If these infrastructures gain regulatory approval and are widely adopted by institutional clients, German institutions will occupy a more favorable position in the European digital asset market.

Furthermore, euro stablecoins are also on the same main track. Qivalis, a euro stablecoin project supported by European banks and headquartered in Amsterdam, aims to counter the dominance of U.S. companies in digital payments and prepare for future asset tokenization. Founding members of Qivalis include European banks such as DekaBank, DZ BANK, ING, BNP Paribas, BBVA, and UniCredit, and it plans to launch a regulated euro stablecoin in the second half of 2026 after regulatory approval.

For Germany, the significance of this project lies not in Germany independently dominating the euro stablecoin, but in the German banking system already participating in the joint construction of European digital payment and tokenized financial infrastructure. DekaBank connects the German savings bank system, DZ Bank connects the cooperative bank system — their participation in Qivalis shows that Germany's crypto layout has extended to more fundamental financial infrastructures such as euro stablecoins, on-chain payments, and future tokenized asset settlement.

In the future, competition in the European crypto industry will increasingly focus on licenses, bank cooperation, custody, settlement, tax transparency, and cross-border service capabilities, and Germany happens to be at the intersection of these capabilities.