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Crypto.com secures EU license to launch crypto financial derivatives

Mobile-first crypto exchange and payment platform Crypto.com secured a license allowing it to offer cryptocurrency financial derivatives in the European Economic Area.

According to a May 21 announcement, Crypto.com secured a Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) license.

“We have already expanded our brand presence in Europe since receiving our MiCA licence and we now look forward to providing customers across the region even more ways to engage with our platform through these new offerings,” said Crypto.com’s co-founder and CEO, Kris Marszalek.

Crypto.com secures EU license to launch crypto financial derivatives
Source: Crypto.com

The announcement followed Crypto.com receiving in-principle approval to operate across the European Union under a Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) license in mid-January. The company received regulatory approval for its acquisition of Cyprus-based trading services firm A.N. Allnew Investments from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).

Crypto.com did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

Related: Coinbase’s Deribit buy shows growing derivatives market

A popular strategy

The company is not the first crypto entity to obtain a MiFID license by acquiring a Cyprus-based financial firm. On May 20, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken announced the launch of regulated derivatives trading on its platform under the European Union’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II).

Like Crypto.com, a Cyprus-based entity played a role in the strategy, with Kraken relying on MiFID II-regulated entity Payward Europe Digital Solutions to offer its derivatives. The launch followed Kraken completing its acquisition of the futures trading platform NinjaTrader earlier in May as its first-quarter revenue jumped 19% year-on-year to $471.7 million.

Related: CFTC mulling probe of Crypto.com over Super Bowl contracts: Report

Crypto derivatives are all the rage

Recently, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said his firm will continue to look for merger and acquisition opportunities, after acquiring crypto derivatives platform Deribit. The comments came after the publicly listed US crypto exchange earlier this month agreed to acquire Deribit, one of the world’s biggest crypto derivatives trading platforms.

Major crypto exchange Gemini has also recently received regulatory approval to expand crypto derivatives trading across Europe. Lastly, decentralized finance platform Synthetix will also venture further into crypto derivatives with plans to re-acquire the crypto options platform Derive.

Crypto.com has made its fair share of acquisitions. Those include Fintek SecuritiesCharterprimeOrion Principals and SEC-registered broker-dealer Watchdog Capital.

Magazine: How crypto laws are changing across the world in 2025

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SEC silent on Canary Litecoin ETF amid gov shutdown

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SEC silent on Canary Litecoin ETF amid gov shutdown

SEC silent on Canary Litecoin ETF amid gov shutdown

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has seemingly missed its decision deadline for the Canary Litecoin ETF, adding to uncertainty amid a government shutdown and new generic listing standards.

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European Central Bank picks tech partners for digital euro

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European Central Bank picks tech partners for digital euro

European Central Bank picks tech partners for digital euro

The ECB said it had reached agreements with seven entities not yet involving “any payment” responsible for components of the digital euro, potentially launching in 2029.

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Michelle Mone says she won’t step down as Tory peer – and accuses chancellor of ‘endangering’ her

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Michelle Mone says she won't step down as Tory peer - and accuses chancellor of 'endangering' her

Baroness Michelle Mone says she will defy calls for her to step down from the House of Lords after PPE Medpro, a company founded by her husband, was ordered to repay £122m to the government for providing faulty PPE at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The peer has faced calls to stand down from MPs across the political spectrum, including Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who earlier this week agreed with Baroness Mone’s contention that the government was pursuing a “vendetta” in trying to recover improper Covid funding.

“Too right we are,” she said in comments at the Labour Party conference.

Money blog: Ryanair CEO warns 100,000 passengers could have flight cancelled

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Baroness Mone ‘should resign’

In an extraordinary letter to the prime minister, Baroness Mone has accused Ms Reeves of endangering her and her family with her comments, citing the murders of Jo Cox and David Amess as evidence of the risks facing parliamentarians.

She also alleged ministerial interference in the civil and ongoing criminal investigations of PPE Medpro, and has called for an investigation into whether ministers have “improperly influenced” the Crown Prosecution Service and the National Crime Agency.

In the letter, sent from the private office of Baroness Mone OBE and seen by Sky News, she addresses the prime minister directly, writing in a personal capacity “first as a wife, second as a mother, and lastly as a Baroness.”

More on Michelle Mone

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£122m bill that may never be paid

Referring to Ms Reeves’ comments, she writes: “The chancellor’s deliberate use of the term “vendetta”, a word connoting vengeance, feud and blood feud, is incendiary and has directly increased the risks to my personal safety…. My family and I now live with a heightened and genuine fear of appearing in public.”

She goes on to accuse Reeves and health secretary Wes Streeting of “falsehoods” in demanding that she hand back £122m, pointing out that she was never a director of PPE Medpro and “never received a penny from it personally.”

While the company was founded by her husband Doug Barrowman, a High Court judgement this week confirmed that Baroness Mone introduced it to the government’s VIP fast lane for PPE providers, and lobbied on its behalf in negotiations.

She has previously admitted that £29m of profit from the PPE contract was passed to a family trust of which she and her children are beneficiaries.

The peer has also accused the Prime Minister of “a total lie” when “you stated in Parliament that my children had received £29m into their bank accounts.”

Baroness Mone said that following these comments, she had received threatening and abusive communications, and cited the death of TV presenter Caroline Flack, who took her own life, as showing “the fatal consequences of personalised public vilification”.

“Your cabinet members, by repeating this knowingly false claim, are inciting hostility and inflaming public hatred against me.”

Baroness Michelle Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman. Pic: PA
Image:
Baroness Michelle Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman. Pic: PA

She has also accused the home secretary of influencing the NCA and Director of Public Prosecutions in unspecified meetings to discuss “high-profile cases”.

“That political influence is being brought to bear is, therefore, undeniable,” she said.

Read more:
Finances feeling tight? New figures help explain why
Living standards stall with signals flashing red for the PM

On Wednesday, PPE Medpro was ordered to repay £122m paid for 25 million surgical gowns that failed to meet sterility standards in breach of its contract with the Department of Health and Social Care.

PPE Medpro was put into administration the day before the judgment, with assets of just £666,000.

Asked if Baroness Mone would step down from the Lords, a spokesman said: “Those calling for Baroness Mone’s resignation from the House of Lords would be well advised to read the open letter sent this morning to the prime minister, which sets out how this has now become a personal attack and vendetta, politically motivated with loss of all balance and objectivity.”

Sky News has asked Number 10 and the Treasury for a response to the allegations made by Baroness Mone.

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