financemagnates.com
Coinbase, the US-listed cryptocurrency exchange, has announced on Monday that it had obtained a license from the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) to provide crypto custody and trading services in Germany. As a result, according to the company, the firm will now operate as Coinbase Germany GmbH, subject to the licensing regime introduced last year.
With the resolution, the US-listed crypto firm is the first company to get issued such a license from the BaFin, which is the first-of-its-kind in the European bloc. “The licensure of Coinbase Germany is an exciting and logical next step in Coinbase’s international expansion journey. Germany is the world’s fourth largest economy by GDP and is the only EU country to have introduced a full regulatory framework for cryptocurrency platforms. There is already a thriving blockchain scene, with Germany as the second ranking country, only after the US, in terms of the number of Bitcoin nodes being run,” Coinbase stated in the announcement.
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The brand-new Coinbase Germany is set to be launched in the coming weeks, the company said, and deploy new features and products with the local customer support team.
“Being awarded the license is the culmination of many months of hard work from the Coinbase team, in close collaboration with the BaFin. We look forward to bringing a best-in-class crypto product offering coupled with a secure, localized experience to our German customers,” Marcus Hughes, Coinbase’s Managing Director for Europe, highlighted.
Recent FSA License
The announcement comes shortly after the Financial Services Agency (FSA) of Japan granted a permit to Coinbase, becoming the first Western firm to receive a license of its kind.
However, no good news regarding regulatory affairs has occurred in the last few days for Binance, a major crypto exchange, as the UK FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) had last weekend banned the firm from all regulated activities in the UK.