FINMA Awards Crypto Broker AG With Securities House License
- By acquiring the securities house license, Crypto Broker AG has joined the ranks of entities such as SEBA and Sygnum Bank.
- The new license will not only allow the firm to offer its clients tokenized securities, but also hold funds in fiat currency for clients.
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Zurich-based Crypto Broker AG has been awarded a securities house license with a bilateral trading facility by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), the firm said in a press release on 1 February.
According to the announcement, the new license will allow the firm to expand the scope of its business and begin offering new products to its clients. Crypto Broker AG — which is part of digital assets conglomerate Crypto Finance Group — is one of the few crypto brokers around the world to fulfil the licensing requirements that securities firms active in the financial markets do. The CEO of Crypto Broker AG, Rupertus Rothenhaeuser, said in a statement:
“Today’s announcement marks a milestone in achieving the Crypto Finance Group vision: providing professional products and services for the evolving digital asset universe. Given last year’s exponential growth in digital asset operations with our clients, we expect continued business expansion in 2021.”
The new securities license will not only allow the firm to offer its services to more financial institutions, but also to dive into the world of regulated security tokens. The license will also help the firm deal with any headaches around payments and processing, as it allows Crypto Broker AG to hold the fiat funds of its clients.
Having cleared over $1 billion in trades last year, Crypto Broker AG expects the new license will further bolster its growth, now that it can offer its clients tokenized securities. The firm is joining the likes of SEBA and Sygnum Bank as a holder of a FINMA license
- During an interview with FT, CEO Brian Armstrong said that before the lawsuit a SEC staff member had said that all crypto except BTC was security, and should be delisted.
- When asked how he came to that conclusion, the SEC staff member reportedly said “we’re not going to explain it to you, you need to delist every asset other that Bitcoin”.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong appears on stage at the 2014 TechCrunch Disrupt Europe/London, at The Old Billingsgate on October 21, 2014 in London, England. Anthony Harvey/Getty Images for TechCrunch
- These documents are seen as central in Ripple’s battle against the SEC, which in 2020 accused the company of selling its XRP token without registering it as a security.
- The documents in question are internal emails, text messages, and expert reports that followed Hinman’s 2018 speech, in which he said ETH and BTC were not securities.
- The U.S. SEC had alleged that the two companies and their CEO had conducted an “unregistered offers and sales of securities” during their 2017 UPToken ICO.
- The three entities did not confirm or deny the allegations, but agreed to pay close to $4 million to settle the charges, and the CEO is barred from an executive position for three years.