Swiss digital asset bank AMINA has received a regulatory license from the Austrian Financial Markets Authority (FMA) to operate cryptocurrency services across Europe under the Market in Cryptocurrency (MiCA) regulatory regime.
AMINA said Austria’s approval paves the way for the launch of AMINA EU, which will provide crypto trading, custody, portfolio management services and staking services to professional investors, including family offices, corporations and financial institutions.
AMINA (previously known as SEBA Bank) holds a banking license from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) and also holds cryptocurrency licenses in Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi. The crypto bank is located in the private customer and accredited investor space and works with private bank Julius Baer and LGT Bank, a banking and wealth management group owned by the Princely Family of Liechtenstein, among others.
“We offer everything from bank accounts to crypto bank loans in a regulated way,” Franz Bergmüller, CEO of AMINA Bank, said in an interview with CoinDesk. “We are now also servicing these new digital asset treasury companies, which started tokenizing years ago. Right now, our gold token products are skyrocketing.”
“I was positively shocked.”
According to a press release, Austria was chosen as AMINA EU’s European entry point due to its good regulation and strong commitment to investor protection. Austria is the European regulatory hub for well-known cryptocurrency companies such as Bitpanda and Bybit, and Kucoin is known to be awaiting approval there.
“We have obtained a full banking license from FINMA in Switzerland, so I think we can make a comparison,” Bergmüller said of the selection of Austria as MiCA’s crypto hub. “I can say that FMA in Vienna has the highest standards imaginable.”
The advent of a unified regulatory framework for cryptocurrency companies across the European Union signals the growing maturity of the digital asset market. However, the deployment of MiCA was not without its problems. Indeed, Austria’s FMA joined French and Italian financial regulators in September to call for stronger EU control of MiCA.
“Three years ago, I was shocked that Europe could agree on cryptocurrencies,” Bergmuller said. “Actually, I don’t think they’ve done a bad job of defining everything. Of course, this is a very young industry and there will be new technological developments. It’s constantly evolving.”
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