France's MiCA register looks nothing like Germany's or Malta's. It is not filled with banks, and it is not a landing pad for foreign exchanges. It is overwhelmingly home-grown — 35 authorised firms, 28 of them French companies — and it holds something no other member state does: a cluster of professional market-makers, alongside a global bank building crypto natively.
Published: August 2026 · Data as of 5 August 2026 · Reading time: ~6 minutes
Key Takeaways
- France has 35 authorised CASPs, and 28 are French-incorporated companies (SAS/SASU) — a domestic ecosystem, not an import.
- Only 6% are banks (2 of 35), the opposite of Germany's bank-heavy register.
- France hosts a distinctive cluster of crypto market-makers and liquidity providers — Woorton, Flowdesk, Keyrock, Aplo, Alphacap and Fipto — infrastructure firms that barely appear on other registers.
- Household French names are all here: Coinhouse, Paymium (France's oldest exchange), Deblock, Bitstack, Finary, Meria.
- Institutional weight too: SG Forge (Société Générale's digital-asset arm), Circle, CoinShares, and even Bpifrance, the French sovereign investment bank.
A domestic ecosystem, not an import
France legislated for crypto early — its 2019 PACTE law created the PSAN regime that many of these firms first registered under, before MiCA replaced it. The result is a register that is strikingly local. Of the 35 authorised CASPs, 28 are French SAS or SASU companies. Where Malta attracted the world's big international exchanges and Germany's register fills with cooperative banks, France mostly grew its own.
The retail names are the ones French users would know: Coinhouse (a Paris exchange since 2015), Paymium (founded in 2013, one of the oldest crypto exchanges in the world), Deblock, Bitstack, Finary and Meria. These are domestic consumer platforms authorised at home.
The part no other country has: a market-maker cluster
The genuinely distinctive feature of the French register is not the retail apps. It is the concentration of market-makers and liquidity providers — the wholesale plumbing of crypto trading:
| Firm | Role |
|---|---|
| Woorton | Market-maker / OTC liquidity |
| Flowdesk Europe | Market-making infrastructure |
| Keyrock | Digital-asset market-maker |
| Aplo | Institutional brokerage / liquidity |
| Alphacap | Digital-asset trading |
| Fipto | Payments & liquidity |
Half a dozen of these firms chose France as their MiCA base. They rarely appear elsewhere on the register in this density, and they matter out of proportion to their public profile: market-makers are the counterparties that let exchanges and institutions actually trade at size. That France has become their preferred EU home says something about where the professional, institutional side of crypto is clustering.
Institutions building natively
France's register also carries unusual institutional weight for crypto:
- SG Forge — the digital-asset subsidiary of Société Générale, one of Europe's largest banks. It is authorised as a CASP and issues its own euro stablecoin, making it one of the few global banks building crypto natively rather than merely notifying under Article 60.
- Circle — the issuer of USDC, authorised through Circle Internet Financial Europe, which bases key EU operations in France.
- CoinShares — Europe's largest listed digital-asset manager.
- Bpifrance Investissement — the French state's own investment bank, on the register in an advisory capacity.
France is also a stablecoin issuance hub: its EMT (e-money token) issuers include SG Forge, Circle, CACEIS, Oddo BHF and others — the machinery for euro-denominated stablecoins, concentrated in Paris.
Still growing
The register is not static. The most recent snapshot added four French firms in a matter of weeks — Finary (6 July), Woorton (23 July), Feel Mining (24 July) and Shares (28 July) — a mix of a retail wealth app, a market-maker and two others. France's count rose from 31 to 35 in this window alone.
What it tells us about MiCA
Three countries, three completely different registers:
- Germany — crypto through the banking system; nearly half the register banks.
- Malta — the world's big exchanges, licensed on the island; no banks at all.
- France — a home-grown ecosystem: domestic retail startups, a market-maker cluster, and institutions like SG Forge building natively.
MiCA created one licence and one passport, but it did not create one market. France's contribution is the most financial-infrastructure-heavy of the three — the market-makers, the stablecoin issuers, the bank subsidiary — grown largely at home. For the fuller picture of how a firm gets authorised in France, see our guide to the AMF's CASP requirements.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many crypto firms are licensed in France under MiCA? 35 authorised CASPs as of 5 August 2026, 28 of them French-incorporated companies. Only two are banks.
Which French crypto companies have MiCA licences? They include Coinhouse, Paymium, Deblock, Bitstack, Finary and Meria on the retail side; Woorton, Flowdesk, Keyrock and Aplo among market-makers; and SG Forge, Circle and CoinShares among institutions.
Why does France have so many market-makers on the register? France has become the preferred EU base for crypto market-makers and liquidity providers — Woorton, Flowdesk, Keyrock, Aplo and others — a concentration not seen on other member states' registers. These wholesale firms provide the liquidity that exchanges and institutions trade against.
Is Société Générale in the MiCA register? Yes. SG Forge, Société Générale's digital-asset arm, is an authorised CASP and issues its own euro stablecoin — one of the few global banks building crypto services natively rather than by notification.
Sources
- MICA Watch snapshot of the ESMA CASP and EMT registers, data as of 5 August 2026. Browse the full register, the CASP hub or the France country profile.
- Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCA); France's earlier PSAN regime under the 2019 PACTE law preceded it. Context: MiCA regulators and the EU framework.
- Firm roles (market-making, issuance) reflect the companies' known businesses; register entries identify them by legal name (e.g. SG Forge as Société Générale — Forge).