German investment platform Trade Republic and digital asset exchange Crypto.com have registered as crypto service providers in Italy. Since February, the financial authorities in Rome maintain a registry for all cryptocurrency platforms permanently operating in the country.
More Companies Register as Providers of Crypto Services in Italy
Germany-based investment platform Trade Republic and Singapore-headquartered digital currency exchange Crypto.com announced their registrations as crypto operators in Italy on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The news comes after other major crypto platforms like Binance, the world’s largest exchange by trading volume, and leading U.S. trading platform Coinbase did the same, earlier.
The special registry for crypto service providers working in the Italian market was established by the Ministry of Economy and the brokerage regulator Organismo degli Agenti e dei Mediatori (OAM) in February of this year. It lists all cryptocurrency operators with a presence in the country. To register they need to meet a set of requirements.
“We are excited to receive this registration in Italy and view it as a major step forward for Crypto.com,” Kris Marszalek, co-founder and CEO of Crypto.com, has been quoted as saying. He emphasized that the exchange, which has 50 million users around the world, is committed to growing in the region and continuing its collaboration with regulatory bodies.
Concerned with consumer protection, financial stability threats, and illicit usage of cryptocurrencies, financial regulators across the globe have been trying to regulate the crypto market. Existing rules are often patchy, the report notes. European institutions recently agreed on the draft Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) legislation, expected to comprehensively regulate the crypto industry on the EU level.
Crypto.com’s registration in Italy follows its entrance into the Greek market and Trade Republic recently started providing crypto-related services in Spain. The latter is also authorized by Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (Consob), Italy’s securities market regulator, to offer investments in shares, derivatives, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Binance’s Italian unit registered in the country this past May, while Coinbase Global announced on Monday it had met the requirements to list on the OAM registry, allowing it to serve customers in Italy. OAM is responsible for the oversight of financial agents and credit brokers in the country and also implements anti-money laundering regulations.
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