Ireland has the largest entry on the MiCA register of any member state — and almost none of it is Irish crypto business. 353 of the EU's 941 crypto-asset white papers were notified through Ireland, against just 12 authorised service providers based there. Behind the number sits a specific mechanism, and a single exchange responsible for a sixth of every white paper in Europe.
Published: July 2026 · Data as of 24 July 2026 · Reading time: ~6 minutes
Key Takeaways
- Ireland accounts for 353 of the 941 crypto-asset white papers on the register — 38% of the EU total, far ahead of Malta (157) and Germany (146).
- Yet Ireland has just 12 authorised CASPs. It is a white-paper jurisdiction, not a licensing one.
- Kraken alone filed 139 of Ireland's 353 white papers (39%) — and 146 across the whole EU, meaning one exchange is behind 16% of every crypto white paper in Europe.
- The other 59% were notified directly by roughly 300 token projects — VeChain, Celo, Berachain, Walrus, Subspace and a long tail of foreign foundations, a quarter of them named "Foundation", "Association" or "DAO".
- Ireland's number measures where tokens are notified, not where crypto activity lives — the same category error that makes Italy look like Europe's fraud capital.
A register entry that is barely Irish
Sort the MiCA register by size and Ireland is on top. It is easy to read that as "Ireland is the EU's biggest crypto market." The composition says the opposite.
| Country | White papers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Ireland | 353 | 38% |
| Malta | 157 | 17% |
| Germany | 146 | 16% |
| Liechtenstein | 72 | 8% |
| Netherlands | 71 | 8% |
Set that against the licensing register and the contradiction is stark: Ireland hosts 353 white papers but only 12 Crypto-Asset Service Providers. Germany, with fewer white papers, has 65 CASPs. Ireland's dominance is not domestic industry — it is a notification address that crypto projects around the world are choosing.
To see why, you have to look at who actually filed the papers.
How a token gets a white paper — and why an exchange files it
Under Title II of MiCA, any crypto-asset offered to the public or admitted to trading needs a published white paper — a disclosure document covering the asset, the project and the risks. There are two ways one gets filed.
The obvious one: the offeror — the project or foundation behind the token — draws up the white paper and notifies a national regulator.
The less obvious one, and the key to Ireland: when a crypto-asset is admitted to trading on a platform and no offeror has published a white paper, the operator of the trading platform must draw one up (MiCA Article 6). An exchange that lists hundreds of tokens with no formal issuer therefore becomes the filer of record for all of them — and files through whichever member state it is authorised in.
That is exactly what shows up in the data.
One exchange, one sixth of Europe's white papers
Filter Ireland's 353 white papers by who filed them:
| Filed by | White papers | Share of Ireland |
|---|---|---|
| Notified directly (token projects) | 209 | 59% |
| Kraken (Payward) | 139 | 39% |
| Other exchanges (OKCoin, KuCoin…) | 5 | 1% |
Kraken — through two Irish-authorised entities, Payward Global Solutions Limited and Payward Europe Solutions Limited — filed 139 of Ireland's white papers. Across the entire EU register it filed 146. That is 16% of all 941 crypto-asset white papers in the European Union, notified by a single exchange from Ireland.
The mechanism is the one above: Kraken lists a token, no offeror has published a MiCA white paper for it, so Kraken produces and notifies one — from its Irish base. Every token it lists adds a line to Ireland's register. Because a white paper notified in one member state can then be used across the EU, Ireland effectively became Kraken's disclosure gateway to the whole bloc.
The other 59%: a long tail of foreign projects
Strip out the exchange filings and Ireland still holds 209 white papers notified directly — by roughly 300 distinct offerors, and they are overwhelmingly not Irish. The names read like a map of the global token economy:
- VeChain Foundation (San Marino), Celo Foundation, Berachain Foundation, Walrus Foundation, Subspace Foundation, MANTRA Chain Association, Risk Labs, Bubblemaps.
A quarter of the offerors (26%) carry "Foundation", "Association" or "DAO" in their legal name — the structures crypto projects use, not the form an Irish financial firm takes. Another 39 white papers list the offeror as "Not Available".
Why Ireland, for a Cayman or Swiss or Singaporean token foundation choosing an EU notification base? The register does not say, but the usual pull factors line up: an English-language, common-law jurisdiction with a well-worn funds-and-tech domicile, the Central Bank of Ireland as competent authority, and major exchanges already operating their EU arms from Dublin. Once one credible route exists, others follow it.
Reading the white-paper register correctly
Ireland's 38% is a genuine, verifiable figure — but what it measures is easy to misread.
It is not a ranking of national crypto industry. Only 12 firms are actually authorised to provide crypto services from Ireland. The white-paper count measures where tokens are notified, and notification is a jurisdiction choice — driven, in Ireland's case, by one exchange's listings and a global tail of foundations picking a convenient EU on-ramp.
It is the same shape as the enforcement register, where Italy's 98% share reflects one regulator's method rather than a concentration of fraud. Across MiCA's registers, the recurring lesson is the same: the totals track who files, and how, not where the underlying activity sits. Read them as jurisdiction-choice data, and they are genuinely useful. Read them as league tables of national crypto markets, and they mislead.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Ireland have so many MiCA white papers? Two reasons. Kraken, authorised in Ireland, files white papers for the many tokens it lists that have no separate offeror — 139 of Ireland's total. And roughly 300 foreign token projects have chosen Ireland as their EU notification jurisdiction. Ireland has only 12 authorised CASPs, so the number reflects filing choices, not a large domestic crypto industry.
Does a crypto exchange have to write a white paper for a token? Under MiCA Article 6, when a crypto-asset is admitted to trading and no offeror has published a white paper, the operator of the trading platform must draw one up. An exchange listing hundreds of tokens becomes the filer for all of them.
How many white papers has Kraken filed under MiCA? 146 across the EU register as of 24 July 2026 — about 16% of all 941 crypto-asset white papers — through its Irish entities Payward Global Solutions and Payward Europe Solutions.
Which country has the most MiCA white papers? Ireland, with 353 (38% of the EU total), ahead of Malta (157) and Germany (146).
Sources
- MICA Watch snapshot of the ESMA crypto-asset white-paper register, data as of 24 July 2026. Browse white papers, the Ireland country profile, or our EU-wide overview, 926 crypto-asset white papers under MiCA Title II.
- Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCA), Title II and Article 6 — white-paper obligations, including the trading-platform operator's duty. Context: MiCA regulators and the EU framework.
- Filer identification via the register's `ae_lei_name_casp` field; Kraken entities confirmed as Payward Global Solutions Limited and Payward Europe Solutions Limited, both authorised in Ireland.