Popular digital asset custodian, Hex Trust, announced obtaining Digital Asset Service Provider (DASP) registration granted by Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) and Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR) in France.
The development comes amidst escalating regulatory tensions in the United States, which has prompted a number of crypto firms to strategically relocate or expand their operations to more promising jurisdictions in certain parts of Asia and Europe.
Hex’s Expansion to France
Hex Trust is originally based in Hong Kong, a city-state that has emerged as a crypto hub in recent years. But France’s expansion is yet another strategic step for the custodian as the country has been witnessing a significant surge in the entry of crypto firms.
In a statement, the company said that scoring this registration is a “significant milestone” for its broader European expansion plans as it could potentially expedite registrations and license procedures across the continent.
According to Hex’s official blog post, the custodian will now be able to provide services such as digital asset custody, the purchase/sale of digital assets for legal tender, and the trading of digital assets against other digital assets for users in France.
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Hex Trust’s CEO and co-founder, Alessio Quaglini, commented,
“Receiving the DASP registration from a major EU Regulator is an important vote of confidence and demonstrates our commitment to Hex Trust’s ongoing expansion in Europe. The EU is a key market for Hex Trust, as we see strong growth potential and prepare for the European MiCA regulation, set up to regulate the digital asset industry in the region by 2024.”
France Welcoming Crypto Firms
In sharp contrast with the hostile situation across the Atlantic, France welcomed crypto players looking to set their businesses outside. Just a day after the EU gave its final approval to a comprehensive set of regulations that have been curated to uniformly govern the crypto sector in the bloc, Benoît de Juvigny, Secretary General of the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) said,
“If American players want to benefit, in the very short term, from the French regime, and from the start of 2025 from European arrangements, clearly, they are welcome. In France, we are proud to be pioneers.”
In February, Bitstamp secured an operational license in the country.
More recently, Societe Generale’s digital asset venture, SG Forge, became the first crypto company to acquire a regulatory license approval as Digital Asset Service Provider from the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF).
Binance and Crypto.com also scored regulatory approval in the country.
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