How to check a MiCA authorisation yourself
The ESMA register is free and open. Five minutes tell you whether a provider is authorised — as long as you search on the legal entity and not on the brand name.
You can check for yourself in five minutes whether a crypto provider is authorised in the EU. The register is open, the file is free, and all you need is a search function. The pitfall is what you type: search on the brand name and you will often find nothing, while the authorisation is there.
Where the register sits
ESMA maintains the interim register of authorised crypto-asset service providers. ESMA’s MiCA page carries the two files you need: CASPS.csv with the authorisation holders, and NCASP.csv with parties that a national competent authority has flagged as non-compliant.
We read CASPS.csv again on 31 August 2026. ESMA itself puts 21 August 2026 above it as the last update. The file held 335 rows and 330 unique legal entities at that point.
Why 335 and 330 are not the same
Five legal entities appear on two rows in the file, because their services are split across two authorisations. Kraken is the clearest example: Payward Europe Solutions Limited carries custody, exchange and the transmission of orders, and Payward Global Solutions Limited carries the trading platform alone.
Counting rows, then, is not counting companies. That difference is exactly why you should search on the legal entity and not on the brand.
The name you type in
The register holds the legal entity, not the logo on the app. A few examples from the file:
If you do not know the legal entity, search on the ae_commercial_name field: the trading name is usually there. And make a note of the LEI, the twenty-character code in ae_lei. It does not change when a brand or a website changes, so it lets you find the same party again later.
What you check next
Four things, in this order.
The date. ac_authorisationNotificationDate is the day the authorisation was granted. If ac_authorisationEndDate holds a date as well, the authorisation has ended. In the whole file, two rows carried such an end date on 31 August: Stratos Europe Ltd on 24 April 2026 and Decubate B.V. on 26 March 2026.
The services. ac_serviceCode holds the letters a to j from Annex I to MiCAR: custody, trading platform, exchange for funds, exchange for other crypto-assets, execution of orders, placing, transmission of orders, advice, portfolio management and transfer services. An authorisation covers only what is listed. If the b is missing, a trading platform is not part of it — however large the company may otherwise be.
The countries. ac_serviceCode_cou is the list of countries the authorisation has been notified to. That varies sharply: from thirty countries down to two.
The competent authority. ae_competentAuthority and ae_homeMemberState tell you who supervises. Germany counted 79 authorisations, France 35, the Netherlands 29.
What absence does not prove
If you cannot find a party, you know one thing: you did not find it in this file. That is something other than concluding there is no authorisation. An application may be pending, the authorisation may sit with a different legal entity, or publication may be lagging. Ask the provider, and ask for the legal entity and the LEI — an authorisation holder can hand those over on the spot.
The quick route
We maintain a selection of 28 legal entities, with LEI, competent authority, date, service letters and the number of countries: the authorisation register on our site. The status of each provider also sits on a page of its own, for example for Bit2Me or for the difference between Bybit EU and the global brand.
If you would rather search on what a platform costs and offers, that is in the comparison of European platforms.
FAQ
Does the register cost anything?
No. The files are free on ESMA’s site and open in any program that reads a csv.
How often is it updated?
ESMA puts a date above the register itself. On 31 August 2026 that was 21 August 2026. Check that date before you draw any conclusions.
What exactly is an LEI?
A Legal Entity Identifier: a twenty-character code that identifies one legal entity. It sits in the register in the ae_lei field and can also be looked up at GLEIF.
Is an authorisation a guarantee?
No. An authorisation means supervision of capital, safekeeping of client funds and disclosure. It does not guarantee the money you put in, and crypto-assets are not covered by a deposit guarantee scheme.
Sources
- ESMA, Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), register page carrying the date of the last update — https://www.esma.europa.eu/esmas-activities/digital-finance-and-innovation/markets-crypto-assets-regulation-mica
- ESMA, CASPS.csv, the register of authorised providers — https://www.esma.europa.eu/sites/default/files/2024-12/CASPS.csv
Both files were read and counted first-hand on 31 August 2026; the register version ESMA displays dates from 21 August 2026.