Luxembourg’s financial regulator has authorized Ripple as a Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP). This makes the US blockchain company one of the first major players to operate fully regulated in Europe after the end of the MiCA transition period – while competitor Binance withdrew its application.
Ripple has received full authorization under the European Union’s crypto framework MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets). Luxembourg’s financial supervisory authority CSSF granted the blockchain payments company a license as a Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP). Ripple had already received preliminary approval in June – now the authorization is final.
Combined with its existing Electronic Money Institution license, Ripple can now offer regulated crypto-asset services across the entire European Economic Area (EEA). This is made possible by MiCA’s passporting mechanism: a single license from one member state is enough to offer services in all EEA countries – a key advantage of the unified European regulatory framework over the previous patchwork of national rules.
More Than 75 Licenses Worldwide
According to the company, Ripple is now among a small group of digital asset firms with full MiCA authorization. In total, the company holds more than 75 regulatory licenses worldwide, including an authorization from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) secured in January.
Cassie Craddock, Ripple’s Managing Director for the UK and Europe, emphasized that with the CASP authorization, the company enters the post-transitional MiCA era fully compliant and ready to scale.
For the European market, Ripple is particularly relevant with its payment solutions: the company offers blockchain-based cross-border payment processing (Ripple Payments), custody services for institutional clients, and the stablecoin RLUSD. With the MiCA license, Ripple can now distribute these services on a regulated basis EU-wide to banks, payment service providers, and crypto companies.
MiCA Enforcement Has Begun
The authorization comes at a decisive moment: the MiCA transition period ended on July 1. Since then, crypto companies in the EU must either be authorized or cease offering regulated services. On Friday, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published an updated register listing 280 licensed providers – up from 243 a week earlier. The 37 new additions include Standard Chartered, FalconX, and Sygnum Europe.
Not everyone made the deadline: Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, withdrew its MiCA application in Greece shortly before the cutoff and now plans to pursue authorization in another member state.
The EU has thus officially entered MiCA’s enforcement phase. Unauthorized providers must wind down their operations or face penalties. While ESMA coordinates supervision and maintains the central register, day-to-day enforcement lies with national regulators – meaning implementation is likely to vary in strictness from country to country. Belgium’s financial watchdog FSMA is already getting serious: on Monday, it identified six crypto service providers operating without authorization and added them to its list of unauthorized providers.
Source: Original Article
