According to insider information available to Reuters, the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDF) is going to approve licences for two cryptocurrency companies.
Two new BitLicenses may be issued to Coinbase Inc and Ripple Labs Inc in the near future, says Reuters citing “a person familiar with the matter.” According to the news agency, its informers prefer to stay anonymous because they have no authorisation to speak publicly.
The only other evidence to support the information is a publication from 28 April on the NYSDF’s website stating that it has received applications from both Coinbase and Ripple Labs “for a license to engage in virtual currency business activity,” and from Coinbase alone, additionally, “for a license to engage in business as a transmitter of money.” According to Reuters, such notices are only published when all the paperwork is done and the licence is on its way to approval. However, no precise due date can be confirmed yet.
If Ripple Labs and Coinbase get licensed in New York, it will triple the number of BitLicenses in existence. Currently, Circle is the only holder of the coveted document. Redditors jokingly call its licence a “collector’s item”. At least 21 other virtual currency companies applied for BitLicense before 8 August 2015 and continue operating in New York on a temporary basis while their applications are studied by NYFDS. Such companies as itBit and Gemini, however, managed to do without BitLicense, receiving banking licences instead.
In April 2016, two licences to major virtual currency companies were issued in Europe. Circle was granted one from the British Financial Conduct Authority allowing it to introduce bitcoin-fuelled transfers between dollars and British pounds and to partner with the Barclays bank. Bitstamp was given licence by the Luxembourg Financial Industry Supervisory Commission becoming the first licensed bitcoin exchange in the European Union. Both companies can trade in all the 28 countries of the EU without additional permissions.
Alexey Tereshchenko
