Kraken secures EMI license in Ireland, VASP registration in Spain

Kraken praised European regulation in its announcement

article-image

salarko/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Kraken received an EU e-money institution license from the Central Bank of Ireland as well as a virtual assets service provider registration from the Bank of Spain on Tuesday.

As part of the EMI license, Kraken can now expand its EUR fiat services with European bank partners — both in the European Union and the European Economic Area.  

The VASP registration in Spain allows Kraken to offer both exchange and custodial wallet services to Spanish residents. 

On Monday, Coinbase received VASP registration from the Bank of Spain, allowing it to also offer custodial wallet and exchange services. 

“We see a firm foundation for crypto in Europe, which has forward-looking regulation that enables us to grow with confidence. We are grateful for the constructive approach to regulating industry growth set by the Central Bank of Ireland and the Bank of Spain,” Curtis Ting, Kraken’s vice president of global operations, said in a statement emailed to Blockworks.

“In both Ireland and Spain, we are excited to become part of their vibrant local fintech sectors. We also look forward to continuing our investments in Europe more broadly.” 

In April, Kraken announced that its Irish subsidiary, Payward Europe Solutions Limited, registered as a VASP with the Central Bank of Ireland. A few months later, in August, crypto payment company MoonPay also announced its VASP registration in Ireland.

As part of the announcement, Kraken’s Mark Jennings said, “Clear and effective regulation is essential for the mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies.”

Outside of its European expansion, Kraken launched its NFT marketplace in June. The exchange had initially launched a private beta version of the marketplace in October 2022.


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research

article-image

Jack explored the various AI and memecoin projects that have sprung up over the past month

article-image

If gold remains steady today, a single move from bitcoin to $98,500 would do it

article-image

Revenue estimates for the third quarter come in at $33 billion, which would be an 83% increase from the prior year

article-image

Senator Cynthia Lummis hopes a US strategic bitcoin reserve can be teed up for “adoption in 2025”

article-image

As EIP-4844 “blobs” transform the economics of Ethereum layer-2s, a growing debate pits long-term scalability against immediate ETH value

article-image

Prosecutors argued that FTX co-founder Gary Wang cooperated in their case against former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried