The implementation of AMLD5 is not for all crypto companies

The head of Boerse Stuttgart’s digital department, Dr. Ulli Spankowski, said that the fifth money laundering directive implemented by the European Union had a positive effect on the crypto market. Speaking at the CryptoCompare conference in London, he acknowledged that he was “surprised” by this reaction.

“In fact, I didn’t think anything would happen. Because banks and other financial institutions could already offer crypto custody and trade cryptocurrencies ”,

Spankowski said. But since the law came into force earlier this year,

“Now we see a lot of interest from the players in the traditional financial market”.

The implementation of AMLD5 provides that companies providing services associated with cryptocurrencies in EU Member States must register with local regulatory authorities. It also undertakes to identify clients and request information about the source of funds.

Implementing AMLD5 is not for everyone

Some crypto companies have announced plans to leave EU jurisdiction shortly after the directive came into force in January. Deribit has moved from the Netherlands to Panama, complaining that AMLD5 has set “too big barriers” for most of its customers. A week later, the KyberSwap exchange announced it would move from Malta to the British Virgin Islands.

Boerse Stuttgart has already listed a number of crypto financial products on its main trading platform. Officially, it fully entered the crypto space in September 2019, when its subsidiary, Boerse Stuttgart Digital Exchange (BSDEX), launched a Bitcoin-euro trading pair.

BSDEX currently has 120 institutional clients and an “open relationship” with the main German financial regulatory authority, BaFin.

“We could be the roadmap for crypto … because the traditional financial industry is already connected to us on a European scale”,

Spankowski said.

“It seems that the public perception is now that if the regulator says you can have a license to trade cryptocurrencies, they are legitimate,”

explained the representative of Boerse Stuttgart