Gemini Acquired Electronic Money License From Ireland Central Bank

Gemini Acquired electronic money license from Ireland’s central bank according to the latest reports that we have in our latest cryptocurrency news.

The US-based exchange Gemini acquired an electronic money license from the Central Bank of Ireland. The Winklevoss-founded exchange became the first company to receive the license since October 2020. The exchange initially applied for the license back in 2020 due to the impact of Brexit as stated by the Irish Times. Later in 2021, Gemini established an office in Dublin and even appointed Gillian Lynch as the former chief strategy officer to lead the operations in the city.

With this license, Gemini can issue electronic money in Ireland and the crypto exchange has a similar license from the UK Financial Conduct Authority. In addition to Gemini, other companies like Stripe and Meta also have e-money licenses. In the meantime, Coinbase is also present in Ireland where Binance earlier said that it was considering the country as one of the main locations for a global headquarters. In 2022, the Central bank of Ireland said that it was unlikely that the apex bank will approve crypto exposure for its retail investors.

In addition to Gemini, other companies such as financial services Stripe, social media giant Meta, and tech behemoth Google also have the e-money license.

As recently reported, The Ireland central bank released a report on “Security Markets Risk Outlook” where it outlines key areas of risks for regulated financial service providers. On the 23^rd page is a section of the new products where crypto assets got mentioned. Echoing the sentiment of other central banks, the report stated that cryptocurrencies are likely to be high risk and they are speculative assets. The bank also added that consumers have to be on alert to the high risks of buying or holding these instruments like the possibility of losing the investment because the majority is unregulated in the EU region.

The central bank didn’t rule out crypto products which only suggests that it could allow ETF products for institutional investors but it does want to keep it away from retail. Industry analyst Colin Wu pointed out that some of the major players in the industry like Binance already set up shops in Ireland. Other rumors emerged that PayPal was also setting up a crypto team on the Isle. If the bank of Ireland cracks down on crypto trading, Binance and its competitors could have to find a new place to base their operations.