Ripple Markets Ireland Limited, the Irish subsidiary of cryptocurrency payments company Ripple, received approval from the Central Bank of Ireland on December 19 to operate as a virtual asset services provider.
According to the statement, the registration will enable Ripple to offer certain digital asset services within Ireland and paves the way for the company to offer these services to customers across the European Economic Area once the regulated market for cryptocurrency assets comes into effect in late 2024. opened. .
If it obtains additional necessary approvals, Ripple general counsel Stuart Alderoty previously said it could “pass” a European license to the bloc’s remaining 27 states.
“The Central Bank of Ireland’s addition of Ripple Markets to its list of registered virtual asset service providers is an important step forward for our business in the region,” said Ripple SVP, Strategic Initiatives Eric van Miltenburg.
“Ireland has positioned itself as a supportive jurisdiction for the virtual asset industry and, as a result, has established itself as a good place for companies like Ripple to operate, reinforcing our decision to choose Ireland as the primary base for EU regulation,” van Miltenburg said. “added van Miltenburg. “By providing regulatory clarity for the industry, Ireland and the EU are increasing trust in the digital asset, payments and fintech ecosystems and demonstrating their commitment to the long-term development of these industries.”
Ripple has been holding a VASP license in Ireland since November 2022. The company’s latest registration follows its Singapore subsidiary Ripple Markets APAC Pte Ltd securing a primary payments institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore in October. In the United States, Ripple said it had secured most of the 35 remittance licenses this year.
Ireland is emerging as a preferred destination for cryptocurrency companies.
Ireland’s attractiveness as a destination for fintech innovation played a key role in Ripple’s decision to open a Dublin office in 2022, the company said. The Central Bank of Ireland previously established an innovation hub in Ireland in 2018 to promote more participatory and informal interaction between fintech companies and regulators.
Last October, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase designated Ireland as its EU hub, and previously received VASP approval in the country in December 2022. Coinbase’s cryptocurrency exchange rival Gemini also expanded into Ireland in October last year, becoming the first company to receive VASP approval. VASP registration in your country.
The Central Bank of Ireland register includes Payward Ltd, the company behind cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, cryptocurrency payment service Moonpay, and Zodia Markets, a digital asset exchange and brokerage platform backed by Standard Chartered. ), etc., 11 companies are registered.
Ripple’s regulatory issues
In November, the Dubai Financial Services Authority approved the Ripple-linked digital asset XRP for use within the Dubai International Financial Centre. This will allow licensed virtual asset companies within the special economic zone to integrate XRP into their services.
The SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple in 2020, alleging that XRP token sales were considered unregistered securities. In July of this year, Judge Analisa Torres ruled that XRP would become a security when sold as part of an investment contract to institutional investors, rather than a security in the secondary market.
Torres deemed the “programmatic” sales of Ripple, which the company used to automatically sell XRP on exchanges, as not constituting securities products because the buyers “had not invested in Ripple.” Torres later denied the SEC’s request for an interlocutory appeal of the case in October, noting that it would “not substantially advance the ultimate conclusion of the litigation.”
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