Bitfrost, the fintech ecosystem that supports financial institutions in their adoption and management of digital assets, announced its successful registration “as a Virtual Assets Service Provider (VASP) with the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC).”
Now, Bitfrost can “provide clients with access to fiat-to-crypto, crypto-to-fiat and crypto-to-crypto OTC transactions worldwide.”
This registration is the first step of Bitfrost’s hased plan “to become a fully regulated Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) Financial Services Provider in Gibraltar – a region whose DLT regulatory framework is considered one of the most robust in the world.”
The move comes as part of a wider licensing expansion campaign “by Bitfrost, with a focus on Gibraltar, Switzerland, Cyprus, Hong Kong and the UK.”
The push will be “led by newly appointed Head of Compliance, Eva Lorenzo, who brings with her a decade of experience in banking and crypto compliance.”
Lorenzo’s role is “to provide maximum confidence to clients and partners in a sector renowned for placing significant importance on regulation.”
Eva Lorenzo commented:
“Robust compliance is very important to our clients. Our registration as a VASP in Gibraltar lets them know it’s important to us, too. By complying with the high standards of the GFSC, we are demonstrating our willingness to go above and beyond to be on the front foot of crypto compliance. We hope that this will provide all our clients with greater comfort when entering or expanding into the market.”
Anton Chashchin, Managing Partner of Bitfrost, added:
“Much like the global financial market, Gibraltar is increasingly looking at how it can facilitate a financial ecosystem that is robustly regulated while leaving sufficient breathing room for innovation. This is well-aligned with Bitfrost’s own objectives, striving to provide customers with the widest, most market-forward range of financial services possible while ensuring maximum protections. We’re now looking at the next steps necessary to obtain authorisation to operate as a fully regulated DLT or Virtual Asset Service Provider. We are very thankful to the GFSC for their help so far, and also to the team at Hassans International Law Firm for their expert guidance and support throughout.”
Anthony Provasoli, team lead on the project for Hassans in Gibraltar, said:
“I am thrilled that the DLT offering in Gibraltar continues to make the right noises and attract the right players to our market. Bitfrost has been uniquely engaged from the get-go. Our team worked hard to secure registration, but their commitment and sincere belief in the importance of balancing regulation, innovation and customer protection made for a smooth process.”
As noted in the update shared with CI, Bitfrost may “restrict or deny its services to certain countries depending on sanctions, regulatory restrictions and prohibitions.”