Sweden’s financial watchdog says it has registered cryptocurrency exchange Binance as a financial institution in the country.
The deputy head of the banking division of the Financial Supervisory Authority, Per Nordkvist, said the registration would allow Binance to launch a Swedish-language website and in other ways market directly to consumers in the Nordic country, he told Reuters.
Binance accounts for more than half of the global crypto trading market. With its registration in Sweden, it has now received regulatory permits or approvals in 15 jurisdictions, including several European Union states and Australia and New Zealand.
The core of the company’s business, giant exchange Binance.com, processed more than $22 trillion worth of trades last year.
Binance, founded by CEO Changpeng Zhao in Shanghai in 2017, has refused to disclose where the exchange is headquartered.
Binance said in a statement shared Thursday by its CEO on Twitter that with the latest registration, Swedish residents can legally access services including cryptocurrency trading and withdrawing and depositing euros on the exchange.
However, Nordkvist said, the registration of the local unit, Binance Nordics AB, does not mean that the company is fully supervised by the watchdog.
Unlike licensed financial service providers, companies that are registered are required to provide the Swedish watchdog with information about anti-money laundering measures, but little else.
“Binance continues to demonstrate its commitment to working closely with regulatory agencies to uphold global standards,” Binance’s head of Europe and MENA, Richard Teng, said in a blog post on Wednesday.
Reuters/Mercy Chukwudiebere
