Germany Issued 42 MiCA Approvals in the Third Quarter

Germany leads EU countries in the number of new MiCA permits. In the third quarter, 42 organizations received approval, BTC Echo reported, citing a FinPlanet report. A total of 72 licenses were issued in Europe during this period, meaning Germany accounted for more than half of the new permits in the region. Almost all newly licensed entities are banks, including cooperative banks and Deutsche Bank, which received MiCA approval last month. Of the 100 companies registered as crypto asset service providers (CASP), 65 are banks.

In the previous quarter, German regulators authorized 58 institutions, and another 120 organizations with licenses in other EU countries will be able to operate in Germany. Meanwhile, the MiCA licensing process is slowing down across Europe. The regulation was adopted in April 2023, approved by the Council in mid-May, and came into force on June 29, 2023. The transition period ended on July 1, 2026, after which all crypto service providers in the EEA must have a MiCA license. Although the number of licensed organizations has grown to 363, the pace of issuing new permits has slowed from 105 in the second quarter. Not everyone manages to get approval: in October, BaFin rejected a MiCA application from Bitcoin de operator, futurum bank AG, part of Bitcoin Group SE. The future of the exchange, serving over 1 million users, remains uncertain.

A separate topic is the tax regime. In recent years, crypto investors in Germany have benefited from a tax break: profits from digital assets held for more than a year were not taxed. However, this year there are signs that the federal government in Berlin intends to abolish the exemption. The Ministry of Finance's draft law provides for a 25% capital gains tax on all cryptocurrency trading income regardless of the holding period, Cryptopolitan reported in September. Good news for cryptocurrency holders in Germany: Chancellor Friedrich Merz's coalition government appears to be delaying the decision under public pressure and opposition from members of the ruling majority in the Bundestag.