UK Regulator FCA Grants Licenses To Gemini And Archax

The UK regulator FCA has granted licenses to Archax and Gemini which makes them the first crypto exchanges to receive licenses. The remaining crypto businesses have until January 10^th, 2021 to register with the watchdog as we are reading more in the crypto regulation news today.

The UK regulator FCA, (Financial Conduct Authority) granted operational licenses to Gemini and Archax, two cryptocurrency exchanges based in the United Kingdom. As it was announced yesterday, the UK Archax platform was the first platform to be FCA-regulated in the country. Digital issuances from across the world will be able to trade on the FCA authorized secondary market as institutions will also be able to employ the trading platform to enter the digital securities space.

The company noted that they received an FCA-crypto asset registration making them fully compliant virtual asset service providers. The CEO Graham Rodford of Archax commented:

 “We have been talking to the FCA for a while, and the application process has been a tough journey, but we are pleased to have now achieved our first significant milestone as we prepare to launch the UK’s first FCA regulated digital securities exchange later this year. Our technology partners are second to none, we have a pipeline of 35 digital issuances in place, and we are signing up global brokers and market makers ready for go-live.”

Digital securities utilize blockchain technology to try and tokenize traditional assets such as equity, funds, or debt. According to the statement, the process will modernize and simplify the capital-raising process via disintermediation, helping to facilitate liquidity in assets and remove frictions of assets that are currently hard to trade.

Shortly after Archax made its announcement, the UK branch of Gemini (Gemini Europe Limited) appeared on the FCA website as another licensed crypto exchange. In order to comply with the amended anti-money laundering rules, the Winklevoss platform registered with the regulator as a digital asset platform. As mentioned, the rest of the platforms have until January 10^th, 2021 to receive these licenses. It’s worth noting that the FCA registrations are mandatory because the regulator became the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing supervisor of all crypto-related businesses. The watchdog said that if such companies fail to register with them in a year deadline, they will have to cease carrying on businesses.