Binance licensed to provide crypto services in El Salvador

By: Michael Wilson

Binance licensed to provide crypto services in El Salvador

August 8, 2023 4:54 PM

Since Bitcoin became legal tender in El Salvador in 2021, the exchange has been working toward obtaining the necessary licenses to operate as a Bitcoin Services Provider and Digital Assets Services Provider.


Binance, a global cryptocurrency exchange, has announced that it has been given authorization to provide services to El Salvador residents.


Binance said→ on August 8 that the Central Reserve Bank of El Salvador has approved the exchange's application for a Bitcoin Services Provider license and that the country's National Commission of Digital Assets had issued it a non-provisional Digital Assets Services Operator license. Binance will be able to offer "tailor-made products and services" related to cryptocurrency in the Latin American country, thanks to regulatory approval.

 

 

Min Lin, Binance's head of Latin America, stated that the exchange's licensing procedure took "many months." Amid a push from crypto-friendly President Nayib Bukele and the ratification of the country's Bitcoin Law, El Salvador accepted Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender alongside the US dollar in 2021.


Bitfinex Securities El Salvador was issued a digital asset service provider license by El Salvador's National Digital Asset Commission in April. The firm operates essentially autonomously of its global exchange.


Binance is a global cryptocurrency exchange that, along with its affiliates, has been authorized to operate in a wide variety of jurisdictions. The company announced the opening of a Japan-based arm on August 1, and its Dubai-based subsidiary got a license from the emirate's Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority in July.


However, regulators and lawmakers in the United States are closely monitoring the exchange. Both Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao have been under scrutiny since March and June, respectively, for alleged violations of trading and derivatives regulations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alongside the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)→ among other agencies.