The Iberian state moves to become a bigger blockchain player as Portugal starts approving crypto exchanges, with two licensed so far.
Mind the Coin and Criptoloja exchanges have now both been approved by the country’s central bank, the Banco de Portugal, which is ultimately responsible for registering financial entities which act as virtual asset service providers (VASP’s). The Banco will also oversee regulatory compliance, including KYC/AML.
The approval has however taken over 9 months since Criptoloja first filed for approval back in September 2020, and the move seems to have emboldened other would-be exchanges to file their own registration requests, with the Banco confirming it had received five formal requests already, and a further 60 informal contacts, as reported by local media outlet Dinheiro.
