Binance Granted Crypto Registration From Spanish Central Bank

The approval will allow Binance to offer exchange and custodial services in Spain in compliance with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing regulations. 

Bank of Spain Gives Green Light on Binance Registration 

Binance is about to expand its presence in Spain. 

In a Friday blog post, the leading cryptocurrency exchange announced that its Spanish subsidiary, Moon Tech Spain, S.L., had been granted registration as a Virtual Assets Services Provider by the Bank of Spain. 

The registration gives Binance approval to offer crypto exchange and custodial services in Spain in accordance with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist finance registration regulations. 

It comes after Binance announced recently scored similar wins in France and Italy as it looks to expand its services across Europe. 

The firm’s founder and CEO, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, commented on the development, reiterating that he thought crypto regulation was “essential” to help crypto grow. “We have invested significantly in compliance and introduced AMLD 5 and 6 compliant tools and policies to ensure that our platform remains the safest and most trustworthy in the industry,” he added. “Moon Tech’s registration in Spain is an acknowledgement of the hard work and commitment of our teams to providing a platform that places user protection above all else.” 

According to the blog post, Binance Spain plans to make new hires off the back of the registration, defying a trend that’s seen many top crypto firms slash their workforces amid the ongoing market downturn. 

Many crypto exchanges have been hit hard in the slump, but Binance seems to be holding strong based on its recent activities. The exchange became crypto’s first to offer fee-free Bitcoin-to-fiat trading this week, and CZ hasn’t shied away from criticizing some of the industry’s top players throughout the drama. Last month, he said that bailouts offered by the likes of Binance’s competitor FTX “don’t make sense” for poorly-managed firms, and he was among the loudest critics of Terraform Labs when Terra imploded. 

Binance is the world’s top cryptocurrency exchange. According to CoinGecko data, its main spot and derivatives offering currently handles about $66.5 billion in daily trading volume despite the waning interest in the crypto market. While Moon Tech Spain, S.L. is a lot smaller than Binance, the successful registration gives the firm an opportunity to further solidify its position as crypto’s number one exchange.

Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned ETH and several other cryptocurrencies.