Coinify exchange secures regulatory nod to operate in Italy

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Coinify, a digital assets platform with headquarters in Denmark, has gotten regulatory approval from Italy’s financial market regulator, the Organismo Agenti e Mediatori (OAM), to operate in the country.

According to a filing on the regulator’s website, the approval was given on August 12 and allowed the platform to offer “services functional to the use and exchange of virtual currencies and/or their conversion from or into legal tender currencies or digital representations of value, including those convertible into other virtual currencies.”

The Danish digital assets exchange is now registered in over 180 countries and territories. Coinify’s payment solution is a useful onramp for fiat into the digital asset market and is also helping businesses work with digital assets. However, it does not allow for trading digital assets except through external means.

The platform was acquired by Voyager for around $84 million in stock and cash back in August 2021. Following the acquisition, the digital asset lender integrated its native token, VGX, on Coinify to bolster its digital assets payment service. However, Voyager filed for bankruptcy in July amidst the market downturn with debts totaling around $10 billion.

Italy warming up to digital assets firms

The regulatory approval of Coinify in Italy is only the latest addition to the bevy of digital assets firms that the country’s regulator has given the green light. Digital assets exchanges like Crypto.com, Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN), BitGo, Bitstamp, Binance, Kraken, and Bitpanda, as well as brokerage Trade Republic, have all registered in the country this year.

In the case of Binance, the registration came almost a year after the global exchange was forced to wind down its derivatives services in the country after coming under scrutiny across most of Europe, according to a Reuters report. 

The firms have all met the OAM’s registration requirements, spelled out by a decree made by Italy’s Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) in January. The decree stipulates that all Italian and foreign virtual asset service providers must have legal and administrative offices or branches in Italy. 

While Italy does not yet have a uniform regulatory approach for digital assets, the government has been keen to promote the adoption of blockchain technology. In July, the Italian Ministry of Economy Development (also Ministero dello Sviluppo Economico – MISE) announced a $46 million support fund for startups working on projects that deploy blockchain, IoT, and AI technology in “strategic priority industries”.

Watch: The BSV Global Blockchain Convention panel, The Future of Digital Asset Exchanges & Investment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsD1na3VgxE