Coinbase (COIN), the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, won a regulatory approval from the Dutch central bank that will eventually give it the ability to offer services in the entire European Union.
Registering with the De Nederlandsche Bank will give Coinbase permission to offer crypto products and services to consumers and businesses in the country. Bitstamp, another crypto trading platform, was registered in the Netherlands in April 2021.
Once the EU's markets in crypto assets (MiCA) regulation comes into force, Coinbase will be able offer crypto trading services in the other 26 EU nations. The EU completed the full text of that legislation this week. Registration or licensing applications are underway in several other major markets, Coinbase said.
"The Netherlands is a critical international market for crypto, and I am really excited for Coinbase to bring the potential of the crypto economy to the market here,” Nana Murugesan, Coinbase's vice president of international and business development, said in a statement.
Coinbase follows rival crypto exchanges such as Binance, which registered in France, and Bitstamp, in Italy, in gaining regulatory approval in individual European countries this year, in theory making it easier to operate across the EU once MiCA becoming law.
