British Financial Conduct Authority has granted Circle an electronic money licence allowing it to introduce, in partnership with Barclays, bitcoin-fueled transfers between dollars and British pounds.
Having partnered Barclays, Circle is now granted access to all the infrastructure needed to store British pounds and to connect to any bank account in the United Kingdom.
By the end of the year, the company plans to enable transfers between the currencies and euros, too, which is possible thanks to the British e-money licence’s validity in all 28 EU countries.
The move can be seen as historic, since, interested in blockchain, most banks have avoided working with bitcoin earlier. However, the digital currency was not even mentioned by the bank’s spokesperson who said: “We support the exploration of positive uses of blockchain that can benefit consumers and society.”
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire does not seem to promote strict loyalty to bitcoin either, saying that, even though Circle currently uses bitcoin’s blockchain, the possibility of switching to another blockchain should not be ruled out: “We are not wedded to one blockchain as the right one.”
At any rate, the partnership with Barclays is viewed by Allaire as a great milestone:
“For the first time any consumer in the U.S. and the U.K. will be able to beam sterling and dollars back and forth, instantly for free. That’s just never been possible.”
Harriet Baldwin, Economic Secretary to the UK Treasury, also applauded the agreement:
“Circle's decision to launch in the UK, and the firm's new partnership with Barclays are major milestones. They prove our decision to introduce the most progressive, forward-looking regulatory regime is paying off and cements our status as the world's Fin Tech capital.”
In a recent e-mail to its users Circle asked the customers which other currencies they were interested in. Moreover, the company informed them that it had annulled all limits on how much a consumer can spend and receive per week week:
“It’s your money, after all. Moving it should be free in every sense of the word,” the letter reads.
Curiously enough, Circle is the only company that succeeded in obtaining BitLicense issued by New York State so far. Redditors jokingly call the licence a “collector’s item”.
In 2014-2015, the company raised a total of $76 million in venture capital, such giants as Goldman Sachs and the China-based IDG Capital being among the investors.
Alexey Tereshchenko
