France approves Binance to operate digital asset trading services

Exchanges • May 4, 2022, 2:31PM EDT
The Block

French financial regulators afforded Binance, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, a digital asset service provider license on Wednesday. 

Binance can now operate its digital asset trading platform in France, meaning it can facilitate digital asset custody, let users buy and sell crypto and help to exchange digital assets for each other, according to the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), a French financial market regulator. 

THE SCOOP

Keep up with the latest news, trends, charts and views on crypto and DeFi with a new biweekly newsletter from The Block's Frank Chaparro

By signing-up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
By signing-up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

The move adds another step in Binance’s expansion across Europe — and to particularly entrench itself in France, which Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao called, “uniquely positioned to be the leader of this industry in Europe” at the 2022 Paris Blockchain Week Summit. Binance has 50 employees already working in France, Zhao added. 

Last month, Binance invested 100 million euros ($108 million) into Station F, a startup incubator headquartered in Paris, in addition to poaching former AMF deputy general counsel Stéphanie Cabossioras as a Binance employee.

About Author

MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.

More by MK Manoylov