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Stripe’s payments subsidiary Bridge just got a lot more official in Europe. Bridge Building, the Luxembourg-based entity behind the stablecoin infrastructure platform, secured both a Crypto-Asset Service Provider authorization and an Electronic Money Institution license from Luxembourg’s Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier — and the European Securities and Markets Authority has now added it to the official EU MiCA register.
What the Luxembourg Approvals Actually Cover
Two separate licenses. That’s what Bridge walked away with from Luxembourg’s financial regulator. The CASP authorization and the EMI license together let businesses across the EU build stablecoin and payment solutions inside a fully regulated environment, according to Mai Leduc Blount, Bridge’s Head of Product. That’s a broader runway than a single license would give — the EMI piece alone covers the issuance of electronic money tokens, which sits at the core of what stablecoin infrastructure companies actually do. Getting both in one sweep from Luxembourg is pretty much the cleanest entry point into the EU market available right now.
Bridge is Stripe’s acquisition — the payments giant bought the company to beef up its stablecoin rails — so the Luxembourg approvals carry weight beyond just Bridge itself. Stripe has been pushing hard into crypto-adjacent payments infrastructure, and a regulated EU footprint makes that story a lot more credible to enterprise clients who can’t touch anything that isn’t compliant.
The broader MiCA framework has been in motion for a while now, and regulated stablecoin infrastructure is basically the hottest category inside it. Demand from fintech builders and traditional banks wanting to plug into programmable payments has pushed companies to race for CASP and EMI status. Bridge just cleared that bar.
EU MiCA Register Now at 324 CASPs and 42 EMT Issuers
With Bridge in, the total count of electronic money token issuers in the EU register sits at 42. The total number of Crypto-Asset Service Providers across the register is now 324 — up from the previous count after ESMA’s latest batch of additions.
And Germany added three more names to the CASP list in the same update. Volksbank Die Gestalterbank, VBU Volksbank im Unterland, and VR-Bank Erding all landed new entries. Three German cooperative banks joining a crypto register in one shot isn’t nothing — it probably says something about where traditional European banking is heading with digital asset services, even if none of them are splashy fintech names.
No new asset-referenced token authorizations came through in the update. The ART segment of the register stayed flat. And the list of non-compliant crypto asset companies didn’t change either — no additions, no removals.
ESMA has been updating the MiCA register more frequently lately, with several rounds of changes coming through in July alone. That pace is faster than the early months of the framework, when updates were sparse and the register moved slowly. It’s not clear yet whether the July acceleration was a one-time processing catch-up or a sign of a more active review pipeline going forward.
What Bridge’s Registration Means for Stablecoin Builders
For developers and fintechs building on top of stablecoin rails, Bridge’s regulated status matters. It’s one thing to use infrastructure from a well-funded startup. It’s another to use infrastructure from a company holding an EMI license in a major EU jurisdiction with full MiCA compliance. The compliance overhead for clients drops significantly when the underlying provider is already authorized.
Bridge’s move also fits a pattern. Stablecoin infrastructure companies have been targeting EU regulatory status aggressively since MiCA’s full rollout, knowing that enterprise and institutional clients in Europe basically can’t use unlicensed providers for anything that touches payments. Getting into the register early locks in credibility before the market gets more crowded.
The 42 EMT issuers currently in the register is still a relatively small number given how many stablecoin-adjacent projects exist globally. But the list is growing. And ESMA’s willingness to keep updating the register at a faster clip probably means that number moves higher through the rest of the year.
Germany’s three new CASPs are a reminder that the register isn’t just a fintech story. Traditional banking institutions are showing up too, which changes the competitive landscape for pure-play crypto companies that assumed MiCA would mostly be their territory. It won’t be. The Volksbanks of Europe are filing paperwork right alongside the stablecoin startups.
What Bridge does next with its dual authorization — whether it moves quickly to onboard EU clients or takes a slower ramp — isn’t detailed in the announcement. Leduc Blount’s comment focused on what the approvals enable rather than specific launch timelines. No details yet on which EU markets Bridge plans to prioritize first.
The register now stands at 324 CASPs and 42 EMT issuers, with no new ART authorizations and no changes to the non-compliant list.
Frequently Asked Questions
What licenses did Bridge receive in Luxembourg?
Bridge Building received both a Crypto-Asset Service Provider authorization and an Electronic Money Institution license from Luxembourg’s Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier, enabling it to offer stablecoin and payment solutions across the EU.
How many CASPs are now in the EU MiCA register?
The EU MiCA register now includes 324 Crypto-Asset Service Providers following the latest ESMA update, which also added three new German entries: Volksbank Die Gestalterbank, VBU Volksbank im Unterland, and VR-Bank Erding.
