Coinbase announced that the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) has awarded Coinbase Germany GmbH a licence for crypto custody and trading, under the new licensing regime introduced in January 2020. The BaFin licensing framework is the first of its kind in the European Union, and Coinbase Germany is the first company to be issued such a licence.
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.
“Being awarded the licence 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,” said Marcus Hughes, Coinbase’s managing director for Europe, in a statement.
In a separate announcement, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued a notice that Binance Markets, part of a wider Group, is not permitted to undertake any regulated activity in the UK. No other entity in the Binance Group holds any form of UK authorization, registration or licence to conduct regulated activity in the UK.
“While we don’t regulate cryptoassets like bitcoin or ether, we do regulate certain cryptoasset derivatives (such as futures contracts, contracts for difference and options), as well as those cryptoassets we would consider ‘securities’” the FCA said in a statement. “A firm must be authorised by us to advertise or sell these products in the UK.”