Coinbase Gains Licence to Operate as Virtual Asset Services Provider in France

Coinbase can now offer custody services for digital assets along with facilitating their buying and selling deals.

Written by Radhika Parashar, Edited by David Delima | Updated: 25 December 2023 13:46 IST

Coinbase Gains Licence to Operate as Virtual Asset Services Provider in France

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Coinbase’s blog said 10 percent of French adults own crypto assets

Highlights

France is imposing strict oversight over the crypto sector
Along with Coinbase, other crypto firms are also setting up shop in Franc
Crypto.com and Binance are among other platforms operating in France

US-based crypto exchange Coinbase has successfully acquired a licence to operate as a virtual asset service provider (VASP) in France. This also means that Coinbase is now a registered entity with Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), the French financial markets authority. While Binance has amassed approval internationally outside the US, Coinbase appears to be following the same trajectory amid increasing scrutiny from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The third-largest crypto firm by trading volume globally, Coinbase can now offer retail, institutional, and ecosystem products and service options in France.

Bonjour la France. :fr:

We've received approval in France as a registered VASP. This is an important market for us and represents another chapter in our Go Deep, Go Broad international strategy.

Learn more: https://t.co/OGiAcSyY3c pic.twitter.com/Z50oojEWV3
— Coinbase :shield::telephone_receiver: (@coinbase) December 21, 2023

Furthermore, this fresh registration also opens doors for Coinbase to extend custody service for digital assets along with facilitating their buying and selling deals as well, said the exchange in a blog post.

“We're focused on bringing the benefits of crypto to the world. Achieving VASP status in France allows us to continue to grow globally in the best possible way, onboarding the next 1 billion people into crypto while ensuring consumers' assets are secure and that compliance is prioritised. France has a thriving Web3 ecosystem,” said Daniel Seifert, Vice President and Regional Managing Director of EMEA at Coinbase.

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Earlier in May this year, France invited crypto players looking to set up their businesses outside of the US. At the time, this invitation had come just a day after the European Union (EU) gave its final approval to MiCA — a comprehensive set of regulations that have been curated to uniformly govern the digital assets sector in all of the EU regions.

Coinbase has especially mentioned that the clarity that the MiCA laws bring to the crypto sector in the EU has been of great help in growing its business there.

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“The recent adoption of MiCA by European Union policymakers represents a pivotal moment for cryptocurrencies in the region. The regulatory clarity MiCA provides to the industry is hugely welcome,” the Coinbase blog noted.

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Further reading: Cryptocurrency, France, VASP Licence, EU, MiCA

Radhika Parashar

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Radhika Parashar is a senior correspondent for Gadgets 360. She has been reporting on tech and telecom for the last three years now and will be focussing on writing about all things crypto. Besides this, she is a major sitcom nerd and often replies in Chandler Bing and Michael Scott references. For tips or queries you could reach out to her at RadhikaP@ndtv.com. More