Bitpanda, one of Europe’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges headquartered in Vienna, is one of the first foreign companies to obtain a Virtual Asset Provider (VASP) license in Norway. Debate advertisement This happened on October 19 on the company’s official account X (formerly Twitter).
Bitpanda holds similar licenses in a number of European countries including Austria, Germany, France, the Czech Republic and Sweden. According to Bitpanda’s Executive Vice President, Lukas Enzersdorfer-Konrad, the registration in Norway represents another step in the company’s expansion within Europe:
“It is clear that in Europe we need an investment platform that we can trust. At Bitpanda, we aim to be that platform. In the last 12 months, we have been the only European provider to obtain licenses in Germany, Sweden and Norway. We now have over 4 million users We enable Europe’s leading financial institutions and neobanks to offer digital assets.
In May 2023, Norway, which is still outside the European Union, indicated that it could go its own way in regulating crypto assets. In its annual report, the country’s central bank warned that the upcoming EU-level Markets for Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation “may not meet all the regulatory needs of cryptocurrencies.”
Meanwhile, some major cryptocurrency exchanges are still facing issues with European regulatory bodies. In September, New York-based Gemini decided to withdraw from the Netherlands, citing its inability to meet regulatory requirements. However, such problems do not only affect the European Union. The UK Financial Conduct Authority recently added 143 new companies to its warning list of unregistered asset providers.
“Total coffee aficionado. Travel buff. Music ninja. Bacon nerd. Beeraholic.”
More Stories
Warning at Pepco: a large-scale recall campaign due to dangerous products – Vorarlberg –
Leadership questionnaire and Tuesday meeting
Mini Countryman: Outdoes itself