MIDDLETOWN, Del. – September 7, 2026 – BIMI certificate issuance grew 54% between 2024 and 2025, according to a newly published global BIMI research, drawn from a Certificate Transparency snapshot of 20,227 certificates across 109 countries taken at the start of the third quarter of 2026. That expansion is a direct, measurable sign of growing investment in certificate-backed brand identity – more organizations deploying, migrating, renewing, and reissuing BIMI certificates than at any point since the standard launched. A closer look at what makes up that growth shows why the category is expanding as quickly as it is, and what that means for organizations weighing their own BIMI investment.
What the Growth Number Represents
Certificate Transparency logs count issued certificates, not adopting organizations. A single company can hold several BIMI certificates across brands, subsidiaries, or country domains, and a certificate reissued for administrative reasons – a changed provider relationship, an updated logo, a renewed trademark filing – shows up in the data as a new issuance, indistinguishable on its face from a first-time deployment.
In a stable Certificate Authority market, that distinction may attract less attention. During a major provider transition, however, migration and reissuance become important interpretive factors. Annual BIMI issuance climbed steadily from 539 certificates in 2021 to 6,679 in 2025, but 2025 was not a stable year for the certificate authorities behind those numbers – the composition of who was issuing them changed abruptly.
What Changed in the Certificate Authority Market
Entrust, one of BIMI’s two founding certificate authorities, saw its issuance volume collapse over a two-year span:
2024: 1,741 new BIMI certificates issued – its highest volume to date
2025: 501 certificates issued – a 71% drop
2026: zero certificates issued
Entrust’s publicly trusted certificate business was disrupted following browser root-program action in late 2024, and the company subsequently stopped issuing new BIMI certificates. Existing Entrust certificates remain valid until they expire, but any organization needing a new or replacement BIMI certificate during this period had to go through DigiCert, GlobalSign, or Sectigo instead — regardless of whether it was a first-time deployment or a certificate the organization already held under a different provider.
That’s the pattern worth isolating. Total BIMI issuance rose 54% from 2024 to 2025, during the exact window in which one of the market’s two founding certificate authorities shrank by 71%. None of that 54% growth came from Entrust – its own volume fell – so the net increase came from issuance by the other certificate authorities: DigiCert, GlobalSign, and Sectigo. GlobalSign and Sectigo also formed part of the active non-Entrust market.
By the 2026 dataset snapshot, DigiCert accounted for 85.4% of new issuance, illustrating how strongly the market had consolidated outside Entrust – though that snapshot describes 2026, not necessarily how the 2024-to-2025 increase itself was distributed. That expansion spans first-time deployments, Entrust migration reissues, renewals, and replacements alike – all genuine signs of a certificate market actively consolidating and growing at the same time.
Growth Across a Diversifying Issuer Base
The broader trend remains positive after accounting for migration-related activity, consistent with what the confirmed 54% figure already shows. Total non-Entrust issuance clearly expanded strongly across this period, and that expansion – whichever mix of first-time deployments, migrations, and renewals it comprises – represents a certificate market that grew and consolidated at the same time.
What the Certificate Count Reveals
BIMI’s growth is real, and a certificate count is a genuine measure of issuance activity across the market. An organization that migrates from Entrust to DigiCert still has a working BIMI deployment on the other side of that move, and still counts, correctly, as an active certificate holder.
A single figure can represent several different underlying events, all of which reflect real, ongoing investment in certificate-backed sender identity:
A first-time deployment
A renewal
A replacement
A migration reissue
How to Use This Figure
For anyone using BIMI adoption figures to make a decision, the 54% figure is a strong, confirmed signal of overall market expansion during a period of significant issuer-market change, and a solid foundation for near-term planning. That includes:
A marketing leader building an investment case
An analyst covering email security infrastructure
A certificate authority sizing its own addressable market
Entrust’s exit was a one-time structural event, and future growth figures won’t carry the same certificate-authority disruption in quite the same form – which makes the 2024-to-2025 window a particularly clear illustration of a broader pattern: certificate – backed brand identity is expanding across a widening base of issuers, sectors, and countries, not concentrating around a single provider. For organizations weighing their own BIMI investment, that broadening issuer base is itself a practical signal – DigiCert, GlobalSign, and Sectigo are all actively issuing today, giving buyers real choice as they plan trademark, DNS, and certificate work.
The direction is clear: certificate-backed identity is becoming a more established part of how organizations manage their brand in the inbox, and understanding what drives growth in any given year turns a headline number into a genuinely useful planning input. The organizations that treat certificate and issuer management as ongoing operational discipline now are the ones best placed to benefit as that expansion continues.
About VMCCerts
VMCCerts is a trusted provider of BIMI and Verified Mark Certificates, helping organizations strengthen email security, brand visibility, and customer trust. Through advanced authentication solutions and industry insights, VMCCerts supports businesses navigating the evolving email ecosystem. The company is committed to promoting secure communication standards and driving broader adoption of BIMI technology worldwide across diverse industries.
Media ContactCompany Name: VMCcertsContact Person: Andrew Jackson Email: Send EmailCity: MiddletownState: DelawareCountry: United StatesWebsite: https://vmccerts.com/
