An Israeli capital markets regulator, the Insurance and Savings Capital Market Authority, recently granted a “crypto financial services provider license” to Bits of Gold, the first such license for an active company in the country. This license allows Bits of Gold to offer crypto custodian services and to enable the safekeeping of funds belonging to retail customers.
Amendment of Israeli Laws
In what has been described as a first in Israel, the country’s capital markets regulator, the Insurance and Savings Capital Market Authority (ISACA) recently granted Bits of Gold a “crypto financial services provider license.” This license enables the crypto exchange platform to “offer custodian services” as well as to allow “its retail customers to keep their funds safely and insured” via a wallet application that will be launched sometime in October.
According to a statement, Bits of Gold was finally granted the license by the regulator after nearly five years of waiting. An amendment to the law in 2016 means the ISACA can now issue operating licenses to crypto entities.
In remarks following the announcement, Bits of Gold chief executive officer (CEO) Youval Rouach said:
Using our technology, banks and financial institutions will easily connect to what crypto has to offer for their clients. Bits of Gold Connect is an exciting development we’ve been working on for 2 years. It enables banks, fintech companies and financial institutions in Europe and in Israel, to connect to our well-established infrastructures, and offer their clients diverse crypto solutions, simply put, a way to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrencies in an easy, safe and regulated way.
Before being granted the ISACA-issued license, Bits of Gold held a “currency service provider” permit since 2013. However, in 2018 this permit was changed to a “business continuation” permit, which the crypto exchange platform held before being granted the latest license.
Meanwhile, in the statement, Bits of Gold claimed that with the ISACA-issued license and “the Bank of Israel recent orders” the crypto exchange platform will now be able to resolve banking problems that Israeli crypto holders have encountered for years.
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