As of May 1, 398 cryptocurrency companies lost their license as “virtual asset service providers” in Estonia. A part of the actors chose not to renew it while for others, it is the financial intelligence unit which carried out radiations.
398 cryptocurrency companies lose their license in Estonia
On March 15, 2022, Estonia saw the entry into force of an amendment to the regulations on the prevention of money laundering and the financing of terrorism, also applying to cryptocurrencies. Given this update, companies already registered in the country had to comply with the new provisions of the law.
Thus, the local financial intelligence unit (CFR) tells us that 398 companies have seen their license as “virtual asset service providers” expire. This is due for half to a desire not to renew their registration and for the others, it was the CFR itself that canceled these authorizations for non-compliance.
Matis Mäeker, director of the CFR, sees this as a sign that Estonia needed to strengthen its legal framework, to curb the development of unserious players:
“In view of the documents filed by the service providers who have lost their license […] we can affirm that the response of the legislator to the changes in the law, and the monitoring activities, both before and after the amendments, have been relevant. When renewing authorizations, we have seen situations that would surprise all supervisors. »
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Falsified or badly translated documents
Among the surprising situations, mentioned by its director, the financial intelligence unit indicates, for example, that it has had to deal with companies providing poorly translated documents. In addition, some companies provided identical files, people could be appointed as members of the management committee without even being awareand CVs were sometimes falsified.
Matis Mäeker thus underlines the bad intentions of the actors concerned:
“In the applications, we found many suspicious circumstances on various topics. This calls into question the credibility of companies that wanted to do business here [et] shows the willingness of some people to use the Estonian economic and financial system for illegal activities. »
Now there is only 100 active licenses in the countrywhile there were around 650 when the director of the CFR took up his post in the summer of 2021. These results therefore show Estonia’s willingness to take measures in order not to become a destination of predilection for unscrupulous actors.
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Source: Press release
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I timidly discovered the world of blockchain at the end of 2018 during my quest for financial freedom. Initially invested moderately, it was only two years later that I took the gamble of betting everything on the movement that was taking shape then. I then dedicate 2021 to training myself better to acquire more knowledge and seriousness. As I often like to say: I still have a billion things to learn. And what I do know, I want to share with you.
Vincent Mayor
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