The financial market authority in France has given regulatory approval to Binance, the world’s largest exchange. Binance is now a licensed provider of digital assets and custodial services within the country.
Binance has been approved as a digital asset service provider (DASP) by France’s market watchdog, Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF). The company may now offer digital asset custody and operate a “cryptocurrency” trading platform in France. The largest Bitcoin exchange stated Thursday that this is its first DASP clearance in Europe.
Based on the permission, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao released a media interview on Twitter.
Binance is the largest global “crypto” exchange
Binance’s recent drive for compliance has also led to obtaining licenses in Dubai, Bahrain, and Abu Dhabi. Binance handles over $14 billion in spot trading and approximately $50 billion in derivatives per day according to CoinGecko.
France is the first major European country to approve Binance. After Germany has warned the exchange to not continue unregulated operation, french clients are now not doing anything outside the legal realm when using Binance.
The firm is further regulated in Lithuania by anti-money laundering authorities and is pursuing registration in Sweden. Like many tech companies and exchanges, Binance used to be proud of having no formal headquarters.
After receiving criticism from authorities in many countries, including the UK, Italy, and Singapore, they now strive to make amends.
Binance CEO and founder CZ told CNBC last month that the business will locate itself in Paris.
“When we first started, we wanted to embrace the decentralized philosophy of no offices, no headquarters, no corporate entities,” Binance founder Changpeng Zhao said at the Financial Times’s Crypto and Digital Assets Summit in April. “As soon as you want to get licenses, you have to have the traditional structures, which we do now,” he added.
Binance has committed 100 million euros (US$108 million) in its French operations, including a cooperation with the Station F business accelerator in Paris.
It also has offices in the United Kingdom, where the Financial Conduct Authority has stated that it was unable to regulate the organization.
Is Paris aiming to become a future financial hub of Europe and compete with London after Brexit? Lawmakers now have a unique chance to provide attractive frameworks to operators but they have have to bear in mind that Bitcoin is very different to legacy finance.
