News

Weekly Brief 17.08.2026: MiCA Register Reaches 325

Weekly overview for the Baltic and Nordic segment (10-16 August): ESMA MiCA register reaches 325 CASPs, but growth is outside the region – no new Baltic or Nordic CASPs this week.

Toms Ābeltiņš

17 August 20266 min read

There have been no clearly dateable new developments in our segment (exchanges/CASPs, hardware wallets, cards, tax tools) in the last 24 hours, so we are providing a weekly overview. Key takeaway: The ESMA MiCA register reached 325 CASPs on 15 August, but new entrants (including the first in Slovakia and Bulgaria) are outside the region – no new Baltic or Nordic CASPs this week. Includes a regional map and watchlist.

Monday, 17 August 2026. This is a Weekly Brief publication. In the last 24-48 hours, there has been no new, distinct, convincingly dateable major event in our covered segment – crypto exchanges and CASPs, hardware wallets, crypto cards, and tax tools serving the Baltics (LV, LT, EE) and Nordics (FI, SE, NO, DK). Therefore, we are summarising the precisely dateable developments of the past week (approximately 10-16 August) and answering a specific question relevant this week: have any new MiCA CASP entrants appeared in the region? The short answer is – the register continues to grow, but this growth is occurring outside the Baltic and Nordic countries.

Why a Weekly Brief, Not Daily News

Date hygiene is a core principle of this series: an event can only be presented as "yesterday's news" if its actual date falls within the last 24-48 hours. There is no such event in our four categories this week. Instead, we highlight one fresh, dateable trend (ESMA register movement) and do not re-present previously covered events as new – the Q2 report from Swedish exchange Safello (7 August) and the Coldcard incident (2-4 August) are kept in context with their actual dates.

ESMA MiCA Register Reaches 325 – But Growth is Outside the Region

The most clearly dateable event in the periphery of our segment last week is the continued growth of the MiCA CASP register maintained by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). According to the publicly available summary, the register contained 325 authorised crypto-asset service providers across the European Economic Area on 15 August 2026 – an increase from approximately 321 CASPs at the very beginning of August. The register is dynamic and checked almost daily, so the precise current number should always be compared with the official ESMA source.

Regionally, what matters most is not the number itself, but the geography. Among the latest updates are the first CASP authorisations in Slovakia and Bulgaria, as well as continued additions in Western and Central Europe. There are no new Baltic or Nordic firms in these updates. This means that the region's CASP map has effectively not changed in the last week, and the register's growth is still driven by other jurisdictions – partly also by traditional banks, which can join under MiCA Article 60 with a simplified notification.

New CASP Entrants in the Baltics and Nordics? Not This Week

To the direct question of whether a new CASP has appeared in the region, the answer for the past week is no: no new MiCA CASP authorisation has been publicly recorded this week in any of our seven covered countries (LV, LT, EE, FI, SE, NO, DK). The regional picture, according to the latest publicly available summary (ESMA register as of 15 August and Kaupr map, published 3 July), maintains the following indicative overview, which should be taken as background, not an exhaustive list.

Latvia remains the most active Baltic jurisdiction with several CASPs issued (including Paybis Europe, Backpack EU / Trek Technologies, Neverless, AlphaRoute, Bleap, Hodleris, BlockBen, and Nexdesk – most issued in late 2025 and spring 2026). In Lithuania, names such as Robinhood Europe (May 2025), Coingate (December 2025), and Nuvei Liquidity (December 2025) have been authorised. In Estonia, historically the largest VASP jurisdiction, CASPs have been issued cautiously – LHV Pank (banking channel, May 2026) and Lightspark Payments Europe (July 2026) are visible in the register, while many applications are still under review (we covered this topic in depth in our explanations from 14-17 August).

In the Nordics, Norway is the regional leader with five CASPs: TÝR Markets and Firi (May 2026), K33 Markets and NBX (June 2026), and Bare Bitcoin (June 2026). In Finland, Coinmotion (June 2025), Tesseract, Northcrypto, and Kvarn Capital are active. In Denmark, Januar and Coinify (June 2026) are authorised, while in Sweden, the only pure CASP remains Safello (October 2025). This data reflects the situation on the specified dates; each number may have changed, so it is advisable to check the ESMA register directly and the status of the respective company before making any decisions.

Ongoing Stories with Precise Dates

These points are not news from the last 24 hours; we keep them in context with previous dates.

Swedish exchange segment: Safello published its Q2 report on 7 August (revenue -33%, operating loss SEK 7.3 million), which we covered in our daily brief on 12 August. There is no new, dateable information about the company this week. We continue to monitor Goobit/BTCX's MiCA application rejection (2 July) for a possible appeal or re-application.

Hardware wallet segment: We followed the Coldcard (Coinkite) seed entropy error leading to fund depletion (2-4 August) in daily briefs and the weekly brief on 9 August. The regional conclusion remains unchanged – the risk is tied to specific Coldcard models and firmware versions, not to any Baltic or Nordic platform; affected seeds require migration to a new key generated with secure entropy.

Crypto card segment: Kraken launched a Mastercard network debit card in the EEA and UK on 14 July with up to 2% cashback in Bitcoin; the product is formally available to EEA users in the region, but a separate regional rollout has not yet been announced. No new information this week.

Watchlist (Next Checkpoints)

We are monitoring whether any new Baltic or Nordic companies will appear in upcoming weekly ESMA register updates, which would change the regional map – especially Estonian applications, which are under careful review. We are also watching Goobit's potential appeal in Sweden, the legal and recovery consequences of the Coldcard incident, and any regional rollout of crypto cards or tax tools (Koinly, Blockpit, Divly) that would directly affect users in the region.

Outlook for Next Week

In the coming week, the main indicator to watch remains the dynamics of the ESMA register: will growth continue primarily outside the region, or will a Baltic or Nordic application receive a decision? Given national procedural deadlines (e.g., up to 25 + 40 working days with possible pauses in Estonia), applications submitted in spring and summer may only reach a decision in autumn. We will return to a daily brief format as soon as a clearly dateable new event appears in our segment.

Norriwire Briefing