2020-4-8 19:31 |
Coinhouse, a crypto trading firm has achieved a major milestone by becoming the first crypto firm to be approved by France’s top financial regulator, the Financial Market Authority. The nod from the French regulator required Coinhouse to prove that it was capable of keeping crypto-related frauds at bay.
The crypto trading firm assured the regulatory body that in case it comes across any potentially fraudulent activity, it would be able to freeze those assets and provide the fund to the authorities in case of proven fraud. Apart from that the firm also needs to hire a compliance controller to detect suspicious financial activities.
The regulatory nod would also offer an opportunity to Coinhouse to obtain banking services in the country. It is currently working with a German bank and a banking nod in the near future could cut a lot of cost for the firm.
Coinhouse Eyes A Crypto License NextAfter gaining a regulatory nod from the authorities the next target for the crypto trading service provider would be to obtain a crypto license, which the regulators are expected to offer starting from September 2020. In order to be compliant for the license, Coinhouse is already raising equity, investment disclaimers and other legal documents to be in line for getting that license. Sandrine Lebeau, director of compliance and risk at Coinhouse said,
“The registration will soon be mandatory to do buy/sell and custody activities on cryptocurrency in France, but the license will be important for the brand image. The license will give us the right to do commercials and ads about our services.”
As per France’s PACTE law which was passed back in May 2019, any financial service provider offering fiat-to-crypto or crypto-to-fiat services are required to register with the Financial Market Authority for Anti Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Funding. While getting banking services for crypto service providers have been the biggest challenge in France, the PACTE law was passed to fix this issue.
Crypto service providers are hopeful that the PACTE law would help in expansion of the crypto sector in the county. However, PACTE has been a law since November 2019, and since then there has been just one ICO and now Coinhouse has managed to pass the litmus test to obtain the regulatory nod.
Coinhouse believes their entry in France could lead to a new generation of investment in the country and hope that they would attract investment from larger hedge funds, family offices and even institutional clients in the near future. They believe every investor should hedge a part of their investment in crypto to diversify their portfolio and risks.
Coinhouse Looking to Offer a Range of Services To French CustomersCoinhouse is showing keen interest and long term plans for the French market and believe if they manage to get the banking services they would also help them in crypto custodian services by offering their technology.
The firm has also developed staking Defi applications through which it would also offer custodian services to customers where users won’t have to carry their staked crypto assets in their personal wallet. Apart from these, the firm also plans to launch a Euro-pegged stablecoin to make it easier for the customers to trade in their native stablecoin. The firm also hopes to attract a large customer base given they are the only firm to meet all the rigorous criteria set by the regulatory body.
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