VASPs Under Regulatory Scrutiny

In its 2025 NRA report, Luxembourg has classified Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) as high-risk entities for money laundering. This risk is attributed to transaction volume, global client reach, legal structures, and the cross-border nature of crypto operations. The country had previously warned about the sector in its 2020 and 2022 reports, citing the digital and borderless characteristics of crypto assets as major vulnerabilities for financial crimes.

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The European Union is actively implementing the MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) regulation to harmonize crypto laws across its 27 member states. Since January, crypto companies have begun obtaining licenses to operate legally. In May, Kraken launched regulated crypto derivatives trading, and Crypto.com secured a similar license. However, not all players comply—Tether (USDT) refused to align with MiCA’s rules and was consequently delisted from Binance, Coinbase, and Crypto.com across EU platforms.

Crypto’s Role in Money Laundering Grows

With crypto’s increasing role in global finance, it’s also becoming a tool for illicit activity. Earlier this month, Hong Kong authorities arrested 12 individuals for laundering $15 million using over 500 bank accounts and cryptocurrency. Meanwhile, in Europe, 17 suspects were detained in connection with a “mafia crypto bank” accused of laundering €21 million ($23.5 million). Authorities seized over $5 million in cash, crypto, firearms, and luxury vehicles during the crackdown.

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The top two most invested ETFs are:

• iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV): This fund received $13 billion in inflows and manages $428 billion in assets.
• Vanguard 500 Index Fund ETF (VOO): Received $11.1 billion in inflows and manages $398 billion in total assets.

It can also be said that the Bitcoin chart has been squeezed into a narrow range in the last day and that Ethereum has started to rise.

In addition, Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR) announced that it has signed a 5-year agreement by announcing a partnership in Saudi Arabia. According to this agreement, a studio worth approximately $250 million will be established in the country in the fields of Web3, AI and Blockchain technologies.

B2C2, a Liquidity Provider, has received regulatory approval from Luxembourg as a VASP (Virtual Asset Service Provider) aiming to further develop in Europe. With this approval, B2C2 will provide cryptocurrency services to its corporate clients via the OTC method.

Finally, we can give the news that Monero (XMR) was shaken by the Binance delist news. XMR, the pioneer of privacy tokens, fell below its lowest level of the last 2 years after this bad news.

The post BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Attracts Serious Investors appeared first on Coin Engineer.

In its statement, Coinbase stated that the VASP approval will allow the company to offer custody of digital assets, buy or sell digital assets in legal tender, trade digital assets against other digital assets, and operate a digital asset trading platform.

Like other European regulators, French regulators are trying to follow the development of innovative technologies like cryptocurrency and blockchain. These steps aim to improve payment systems and ensure consumer safety at the same time.

The European Union is working to implement the Crypto Asset Markets (MiCA) regulation, which will provide a framework for crypto asset companies to operate. Under the MiCA regulation, instead of registering separately in each EU market, crypto companies can obtain VASP licenses from one country and be able to serve in other countries and expand these services throughout the EU.

U.S.-based Coinbase, while continuing regulatory uncertainties in its home country, also secures its presence in Europe with the VASP registration it received from France.

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The SEC has sued many cryptocurrency exchanges, including Coinbase. Coinbase, stating that it is trying to be compliant with financial regulations, reacted to the SEC’s claims. It also stated that the SEC is trying to regulate companies through sanctions instead of setting clear rules, and that new rules for cryptocurrencies need to be introduced in the U.S. to put an end to this. As a result, France granted this permission for Coinbase!

Coinbase also announced that it has raised a budget of 78 million dollars for the US Presidential elections to be held in November 2024, together with many leading names and companies from the crypto industry, to elect a crypto-friendly candidate. It is uncertain to what extent Coinbase and the crypto advocates supporting the budget will affect the elections, but anti-crypto policy makers and regulatory pressures continue unabated.

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Digital asset investment platform Fasset obtained the authority to operate in Dubai and now can serve institutional investors, qualified investors, and retail investors. According to Dubai’s official records, Fasset received a license to operate as a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) and thus can serve institutional, qualified, and retail investors.

The licensing process consists of three stages: temporary permission, preparation permit, and operating license. Fasset FZE completed this process in close cooperation with Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA). Now it is in a position to offer broker-dealer services and tokenized bonds and shares.

In 2020, Fasset promised to offer free transactions to users in six countries in the Gulf Region and launched the world’s first operating system built on the Ethereum blockchain. During this time, it focused on goals such as creating compliant remittance corridors and focusing on sustainable finance for a broad customer base. It obtained the necessary licenses and permissions to operate in the European Union and became operational in Indonesia in August by partnering with Mastercard.

Fasset CEO Mohammad Raafi Hossain said, “VARA approval is a critical link in our global license portfolio, connecting major regions worldwide, especially places like Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Turkey.”

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The Financial Supervisory Commission stated that, according to the new guidelines, domestic crypto platform companies must ensure the safekeeping of assets for both their companies and clients. It also added that they need to establish standards for the listing and delisting of cryptocurrencies and enhance information disclosure.

The guidelines also stated that offshore exchanges wishing to operate in Taiwan must register with the FSC.

The guide says, “Foreign virtual asset platform operators who are not registers according to corporate laws and do not declare compliance with anti-money laundering regulations to the FSC, cannot apply for business or target citizens in Taiwan.”

The FSC also specified that crypto exchanges are “not allowed to engage in transactions involving derivative financial products with businesses possessing virtual asset characteristics as their underlying asset.”

Previously, Taiwan had mandated VASPs to comply with anti-money laundering laws since the FSC implemented anti-money laundering rules in 2021.

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Regulations

After the guidelines are officially publish by the FSC, crypto exchanges in Taiwan are expecting to form an industry association and establish self-regulatory rules based on the guidelines.

The nine crypto exchanges currently located in Taiwan are preparing to establish an association in October. The exchanges decided to set up a working group to prepare for the association application.

Among them, Wayne Huang, the founding partner and Group CEO of Taipei-based crypto exchange XREX, stated;

He said that the FSC’s new rules could “give birth to a new industry by providing a solid path for legitimacy, supervision, growth for a new sector.”

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Li Zhikai, the Chief Commercial Officer of OKX, stated in a recent statement that they are actively engaged in discussions with banks and are eagerly anticipating the issuance of a license to commence their services. The exchange has already initiated preparatory activities, such as technology integration.

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In 2023, Hong Kong has evolved into a crypto-friendly jurisdiction, with the introduction of a licensing regime for crypto exchanges, including OKX, to serve individual clients. This has attracted numerous crypto companies, contributing to the transformation of Hong Kong into a cryptocurrency hub. Recent license recipients, such as HashKey and OSL, exemplify this trend.

HashKey began offering individual cryptocurrency trading services to Hong Kong users on August 28th. The regulatory authority in the country has limited individual customers to Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) trading to mitigate some of the risks associated with investing in new crypto tokens.

Furthermore, in addition to HashKey and OSL, Huobi and Gate.io have also applied for individual cryptocurrency trading services and are awaiting regulatory approval.

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