ItBit Adds Four New Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin exchange itBit announced it has received approval from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) to add four major cryptocurrencies to its trading and custody services.

In addition to BTC trading, the platform will now be offering services for Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Stellar (XLM).

According to the company’s CEO Charles Cascarilla, the addition of these four crypto assets is “an important milestone for itBit as we create a broader platform for crypto asset investors.”

“We are committed to the growth and evolution of this ecosystem and DFS approval allows us to offer more trading and custody services across a wider range of crypto assets,” he said in the press release.

The newly added assets will have custody, escrow and over-the-counter (OTC) services available immediately. The press release notes that itBit is the “first NYDFS-approved Trust company to offer trading and custody services for crypto assets,” and the first to receive approval to trade Stellar in New York.

The move potentially clears the way for more exchanges to list Stellar, a factor that could help boost the cryptocurrency’s price.

Coinbase, the leading U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, which currently offers trading in Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and Litecoin, announced earlier this week it would add Ethereum Classic to its offerings, sending the price of that digital currency soaring 20%.

ItBit has also been the target of multiple regulatory probes in the U.S. in recent months. The platform was one of the exchanges that received a questionnaire as part of the New York Attorney General’s cryptocurrency trading platform probe in April, and has also fallen under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) crypto probe as one of the exchanges on which CME Group bases its Bitcoin futures trading.

In a rebrand back in 2016, the company shifted to the name Paxos, while the itBit brand was kept solely for its exchange business. ItBit still operates as a separate division from others that take a focus on advancing private blockchain projects such as Bankchain.

Last month, Paxos closed a $65 million Series B funding round led by existing investors including Liberty City Ventures, RRE Ventures and Jay Jordan.

NYDFS simultaneously announced that it had awarded a BitLicense to Xapo, a Bitcoin storage company with an underground vault in the Swiss Alps—only the sixth BitLicense granted since the certification was invented three years ago.

@nileshha