900 cryptocurrency businesses get operating licenses in Estonia
Estonia has always enjoyed a reputation of being technologically friendly. The small European country contributed significantly to the global telecommunications sector by giving Skype to it. Now, it is fast establishing its position as one of the most crypto-friendly countries of the world.
Estonia’s crypto-positive stance, e-residency program and favourable tax laws are attracting cryptocurrency businesses from all parts of the world. In the e-residency program, entrepreneurs can set up their offices in the country and open bank accounts, and then conduct the business from any part of the world and even sign Estonian contracts and applications digitally.
So far, Estonia has granted operating licenses to about 900 cryptocurrency ventures, in which 500 were cryptocurrency exchanges and 400 were wallets. The operating license is granted by the Estonian Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), and it takes about 30 days for an application to be reviewed and approved. However, in most cases, applications get approved within one to two weeks itself. It is mandatory for a company to start operating within 6 months of getting the license, otherwise, the license is revoked.
The approval for an operating license is more complex than it appears on the surface. Since the businesses are registered in Estonia which is a part of the European Union, the business must comply with the relevant local and European laws, which includes complete compliance with know-your-customer and anti-money laundering regulations.
However, what continues to remain a hurdle for cryptocurrency businesses is the lack of banking support for such businesses in the country, owing to which they have to depend on foreign banks and payments service providers.
“Opening a bank account is the biggest problem facing crypto companies. Estonian banks are not yet ready to serve clients operating with cryptocurrency,” reveals Nikolay Demchuk, an attorney who works with cryptocurrency businesses.
The country was also working on launching its own cryptocurrency, but the plans had to be given up because of the criticism they faced from EU institutions, especially the European central bank. Now, the country will launch a limited-scale virtual token, which will be used for transactions between participants of the e-residency program.
Bittoria is a cryptocurrency exchange which will enable cryptocurrency enthusiasts to trade in BTC, ETH, XRP and LTC with USD, EUR, GBP and CHF. The exchange will also roll out support for crypto-to-crypto transactions on the same platform soon in European jurisdictions initially and then expand to other parts of the world. Stay tuned for updates!