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Estonia Has Withdrawn Licenses From Over 1,000 Crypto Companies This Year

The mass license revocation still leaves around 400 virtual currency service providers (VASPs) licensed in Estonia, according to the finance ministry.

Updated Sep 14, 2021, 10:43 a.m. Published Dec 15, 2020, 3:17 p.m.

Estonia has withdrawn more than 1,000 licenses from cryptocurrency companies in 2020, apparently due to the burden of monitoring compliance.

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Veiko Tali, secretary-general of the Ministry of Finance, said in a post on Friday that many of the companies had "minimal" connections to Estonia and clientele in "remote countries."
The mass license revocation by the Financial Intelligence Unit still leaves around 400 virtual currency service providers (VASPs) licensed in Estonia, he added.
The secretary-general explained that monitoring and regulation of virtual currency service providers (VASPs) are in "continuous need of heightened attention," and that "important regulatory changes" are on the way for the industry.
However, Estonia's resources for monitoring compliance by VASPS are limited, Tali said.
Estonia joined the European Union in May 2004, which means the country aligns with EU regulations concerning anti-money laundering and other measures.

Estonia Regulation

Tanzeel Akhtar

Tanzeel Akhtar has contributed to The Wall Street Journal, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Forbes Africa, Financial Times, The Street, Citywire, Investing.com, Euromoney, Yahoo! Finance, Benzinga, Kitco News, African Business Magazine, Hedge Week, Campden Family Office, Modern Investor, Spear's Wealth Management Magazine, Global Investor, ETF.com, ETF Stream, CIO UK, Funds Global Asia, Portfolio Institutional, Interactive Investor, Bitcoin Magazine, CryptoNews.com, Bitcoin.com, The Local, The Next Web, Mining Journal, Money Marketing, Marketing Week and more. Tanzeel trained as a foreign correspondent at the University of Helsinki, Finland and newspaper journalist at the University of Central Lancashire, UK. She holds a BA (Honours) in English Literature from the Manchester Metropolitan University, UK and completed a semester abroad as an ERASMUS student at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. She is NCTJ Qualified - Media Law, Public Administration and passed the Shorthand 100WPM with distinction. She does not currently hold value in any digital currencies or projects.