Cyprus is now the fourth country in Europe to approve the operation of Binance after Italy, France, and Spain.
Binance has announced in a blog post that it has been granted a class 3 registration to operate in Cyprus as a crypto asset service provider. This registration was granted by The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).
According to the report, the exchange can now offer spot, custody, staking, and card services and operate within the anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing rules set by the Agency. Cyprus is now the fourth country in Europe to approve the operation of Binance after Italy, France, and Spain.
“Binance has some of the most thorough AML and CTF compliance policies in the industry. Recognition of the efforts we have made to be on the leading edge of compliance that our registration in Cyprus represents is a testament to that,” said Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao in the blog post.
Binance would implement the KYC (Know Your Customer) measures as demanded by the law.
This is part of its effort to announce its presence globally while complying with the required rules in each country. In May, Binance also secured approval from France’s capital market regulator, the AMF (Autorité des marchés financiers). It was, therefore, permitted to provide digital asset custody services, facilitate the purchase, sale, and exchange of such assets, and operate a trading platform. Binance invested US$108 million in its operation in France
In addition, Binance has obtained provisional approval to offer virtual assets as a broker-dealer in Abu Dhabi. In April and May, it obtained the license to operate in Bahrain and Dubai.
The exchange has faced challenges with regulators in several countries especially since it had no single headquarters. Regulators regard this as a lack of accountability.
“When we first started, we wanted to embrace the decentralized philosophy of no offices, no headquarters, no corporate entities. As soon as you want to get licenses, you have to have the traditional structures, which we do now,” said Binance Changpeng Zhao.
The exchange has got approval across countries in Africa, Asia, and South America. This is said to be an important step for the industry to gain popularity and acceptance to compete with fiat currencies as a means of payment. Recently, the market pullback that has caused assets like Ethereum, Vechain, etc and the loss inflicted on investors have made regulators take stringent decisions in approving services related to the asset class.
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