Luxembourg's CSSF issues green light for Ripple's preliminary CASP approval

Ripple announced that the Luxembourg Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) has issued a Green Light Letter granting preliminary CASP approval under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation. However, the approval is tentative, subject to meeting outstanding final conditions. 

Ripple had already acquired the EMI License in Luxembourg, and this additional milestone allows Ripple to start scaling its regulated cryptoasset services to other financial institutions and corporates across the entire European Economic Area (EEA). 

The license comes during a week when institutional attention in Europe is unusually high as the MiCA CASP deadline looms. For Ripple, this milestone marks the end of a multi-year regulatory build-out that started with its registration of Ripple Payments Europe.

How Ripple benefits from EMI and CASP licenses 

The EMI license held by Ripple covers fiat-denominated electronic money services. It allows for regulated stablecoin payments, direct debit, and e-money issuance. On the other hand, the CASP layer covers crypto-asset exchange, transfer, and custody services under MiCA’s unified rulebook. 

With both licenses, Ripple can now handle the full spectrum in-house. The platform can now legally handle a customer sending euros by converting them into RLUSD or XRP, then routing the payment cross-border and issuing the local currency equivalent to the recipient. 

Luxembourg has become an evident choice for crypto firms, and it’s clear this goes beyond tax efficiency. Luxembourg has become the CASP licensing hub of choice for firms that need passporting rights across all 27 EU member states.

Coinbase, Bitstamp, and Standard Chartered all chose Luxembourg as their MiCA home for the same reason. Matthew Osborne, Ripple’s UK & Europe Head of Policy, credited the CSSF for its constructive approach throughout the licensing process. Osborne also called Luxembourg’s framework “proportionate.”

MiCA enforcement deadline for CASPs nears

The MiCA enforcement deadline for CASPs falls on July 1, meaning that from next week, any crypto firm serving EU customers without a valid CASP authorization must stop operating. So far, only around 200 companies have successfully obtained CASP authorization, according to current tracking. 

Ripple has been on the hunt for proper compliance since the beginning of the year. In January 2026, it secured an EMI license and Cryptoasset Registration from the UK’s FCA. Later in Feb, Cassie Craddock, Ripple’s CEO and Managing Director UK and Europe, welcomed Société Générale-FORGE’s euro stablecoin going live on the XRP Ledger, with Ripple’s custody technology powering the deployment. 

In April, Craddock made the case to the XRP community that Europe has already moved past the pilot stage. She described custody as the infrastructure layer that allows institutions to launch “faster and operate with greater confidence” than anywhere else.

As for now, the final CASP approval remains conditional on meeting CSSF’s outstanding requirements.

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