Genesis Global Trading Becomes The Fifth Firm To Get BitLicense
New York’s Department of Financial Services (DFS) has granted Genesis Global Trading a BitLicense. Genesis Global Trading now becomes the fifth firm to get the license in a period of three years and the first trading firm which is based in New York to get it. The regulation went into effect three years ago consequently leading to the fleeing of crypto firms in the state due to the fact that they either lacked the ability or were unwilling to undertake the measures necessary to ensure compliance.
With the license Genesis will now be in a position to facilitate cryptocurrency trading with institutional trading partners. Before getting the license Genesis operated under the ‘safe harbor’ provision. Genesis mostly focuses on providing high networth individuals and institutional investors access to large volumes of digital assets. Clients of the firm are able to access deep liquidity, 24/7 trading, same-day settlement as well as deep institutional expertise. Since 2013 digital currencies worth billions of dollars have been traded by Genesis. Some of the virtual currencies that Gensis supports include ZCash (ZED), Litecoin (LTC), Ripple (XRP), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Ethereum (ETH), Bicoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin (BTC).
During the Consensus 2018 conference BitLicense has come under heavy criticism with entrepreneurs in virtual currencies branding the regulation a failure. Most of the critics pointed out the slow rate of issuing licenses since only five have been issued with it since 2015. It has also led to some virtual currency exchanges leaving the state and this includes Kraken and ShapeShift. The other four companies which have been granted a BitLicense include Ripple subsidiary XRP II, Circle, bitFlyer and Coinbase.
Simultaneously as the Department of Financial Services was giving a BitLicense to Genesis, the regulator also gave Paxos Trust Company the authority of offering a settlement service based on blockchain technology known as Bankchain. While giving the authority to Paxos, Maria Vullo, the financial services superintendent, said that the state of New York was at the forefront with regards to developing regulations for the financial technology sector in the United States. According to Vullo the regulations were necessary in order to protect consumers while encouraging financial technology innovation.
“This is a very exciting approval … We are focused on building the best infrastructure to enable a modern day settlement solution for the precious metals market that will unlock capital, mobilize assets and create value,” the chief executive officer of Paxos, Charles Cascarilla said.