BingX, YouHodler and Santander’s Openbank join EU MiCA register

The European Union’s MiCA register has reached 375 crypto-asset service providers after adding nine firms, including BingX, YouHodler and Santander-owned Openbank Deutschland, while removing one previously listed Danish company.

According to the European Securities and Markets Authority’s latest register, published October 16, the new entries include cryptocurrency businesses, investment firms and traditional banks operating under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation. The updated list contains eight more providers than the previous snapshot, which recorded 367.

The additions include BingX’s Austrian entity MEGE zweite GmbH, YouHodler Italy S.r.l. and Openbank Deutschland AG, part of Spanish banking group Banco Santander. German cooperative banks and Spain’s Prakma Markets appeared among the other additions.

The register records entities recognized under MiCA, but it does not establish that every listed firm has already launched crypto services for customers. The permissions and activities available to each provider depend on the authorization or notification recorded by its national regulator.

BingX enters the MiCA register through Austria

Cryptocurrency exchange BingX joined the EU register through its Austrian subsidiary, MEGE zweite GmbH, after receiving authorization from Austria’s Financial Market Authority.

In an October 14 announcement, BingX EU confirmed that it had obtained a license under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation. The company described the approval as part of its plans to offer regulated digital asset services across the European Economic Area.

The authorization, dated October 13 in regulatory records, covers custody and administration of crypto-assets, exchanges between crypto-assets and funds, exchanges between different crypto-assets, and transfer services.

BingX EU chief executive Daniel Lai said the authorization provides a regulatory framework for the company’s planned European services. The exchange intends to operate across 29 European Economic Area markets, subject to the applicable cross-border notification requirements.

The license does not automatically cover every product offered by the wider BingX group. In particular, the four authorized services do not establish approval to operate a multilateral trading platform, execute leveraged derivatives contracts or provide investment advice.

Earlier, crypto.news covered BingX’s Austrian authorization, including the distinction between the company’s four approved services and activities that may require separate permissions. The latest ESMA update places the already announced Austrian authorization in the EU-wide public register.

YouHodler receives approval for five crypto services in Italy

YouHodler entered the register through YouHodler Italy S.r.l., which received authorization from Italy’s securities regulator, CONSOB.

The company announced that CONSOB granted the authorization under resolution No. 24156 dated October 8, 2026, after consulting the Bank of Italy. YouHodler’s public announcement followed on October 14.

Its license covers custody and administration of crypto-assets, exchanges between crypto and ordinary money, exchanges between crypto-assets, execution of customer orders and crypto-asset transfers.

Those permissions include order execution, which does not necessarily mean authorization to operate a separate multilateral trading venue. The regulatory distinction depends on which service categories appear in the provider’s authorization.

YouHodler Italy said it plans to provide services across all 27 EU member states using MiCA’s cross-border procedure. The company has not established through this announcement that every service is already available in every national market.

Chief business officer Lorenzo Barbantini Scanni described the authorization as the result of work with Italian regulators and said banks and other financial institutions were seeking supervised crypto service providers.

YouHodler co-founder Ilya Volkov said the Italian authorization would allow the company to operate within the EU’s common regulatory framework. The group’s existing products include lending-related and yield services, but the five listed MiCA permissions should not be treated as blanket approval for every product marketed under the wider YouHodler brand.

The authorization is issued to the specific Italian legal entity. It does not automatically transfer the same regulatory status to separately incorporated companies outside the European Union.

Santander’s Openbank joins other German banking entries

Banco Santander’s German digital banking subsidiary, Openbank Deutschland AG, is another prominent addition to the latest MiCA register.

The October update places Openbank on the same EU-wide list as specialist cryptocurrency companies, reflecting the framework’s coverage of both conventional financial institutions and crypto-native businesses.

The source material does not identify which cryptocurrency products Openbank intends to make available in Germany, when customer access might begin or whether those services will include trading, custody or transfers.

Other German additions include VR-Bank Alb-Blau-Donau, VR Bank im südlichen Franken and several cooperative banking institutions. Their appearance adds to an expanding group of traditional lenders recorded under Europe’s crypto regulatory framework.

An earlier review of banking entries found that the number of banks appearing in the register had increased from approximately 40 in late June to around 80 by mid-September. The same review recorded 349 listed crypto providers as of September 16, compared with 375 in the latest update.

Germany’s activity includes international banks alongside regional financial institutions. Some banks can provide crypto-asset services through notification procedures available to qualifying regulated financial institutions, while firms without an existing eligible financial license generally require separate CASP authorization.

Separately, Deutsche Bank has been preparing an institutional crypto custody service in Germany. Its October 16 custody launch update described Bitcoin and Ether as the initial focus, with stablecoin-related services planned later.

Deutsche Bank’s planned launch remains distinct from Openbank’s latest register entry. The former has discussed a product rollout, while the latter’s October register appearance does not, by itself, establish a customer launch date.

MiCA register rises to 375 despite Penning’s disappearance

The latest register comparison shows nine additions but a net increase of only eight companies, bringing the total from 367 to 375.

According to NorthPoint’s register comparison, Denmark’s Penning Financial Services ApS is the single provider no longer shown in the latest authorized CASP file.

ESMA states that withdrawn authorizations should remain in the interim register with information about the effective date of withdrawal. The disappearance of Penning’s entry therefore does not provide sufficient evidence to conclude that Denmark revoked the company’s license.

The reason for the missing record had not been established in the October 19 reporting available for this article. Neither a formal withdrawal decision nor an explanation for a possible register correction was identified in the reviewed sources.

The register comparison additionally found changes to several existing records, including corrections to authorization notification dates. Some records displayed notification dates later than the October 16 publication date, meaning the listed dates require separate confirmation before they can be treated as evidence of events already completed.

Non-compliant register reaches 178 as token categories remain unchanged

Alongside the authorized providers list, ESMA maintains a separate register of entities identified by competent authorities as offering crypto-asset services without satisfying the applicable authorization requirements.

The October update added five records to this non-compliant register, bringing its total to 178 from 173. NorthPoint’s comparison attributes the five new records to information supplied by Italy’s securities regulator.

A listing in the non-compliant register is separate from an authorization granted to a CASP. The records should be interpreted according to the regulator’s published decision and should not be treated as proof of unrelated financial misconduct.

ESMA’s e-money token register remained unchanged at 50 entries representing 25 distinct entities in the supplied October figures. Its separate asset-referenced token issuer register continued to show no entries.

The EU regulator publishes these records using information supplied by national competent authorities and the European Banking Authority. ESMA states that its interim files are updated weekly, so a national authorization or notification may appear in the EU register after the relevant national decision.

The authority’s October 16 publication contained separate downloadable files for authorized service providers, e-money token issuers, asset-referenced token issuers and non-compliant entities. Each category records a different regulatory status and should be examined separately when assessing a company’s permissions.