UK’s first cryptocurrency exchange, Coinfloor, adds another feather to its cap—it’s become the first crypto exchange to be licensed by Gibraltar’s groundbreaking blockchain legislation.
According to a report in the Financial Times, Coinfloor will be regulated as a distributed ledger technology (DLT) provider under the new license. Coinfloor CEO Obi Nwosu was quoted by the news outlet saying Coinfloor had to undergo various processes before it secured the Gibraltar license.
According to Nwosu, the crypto company was tested on nine principles aimed at determining whether the exchange has sufficient anti-money laundering (AML), and Know Your Customer (KYC) protections in place. Nwosu said Coinfloor had to prove that their security system could stand any kind of cyber attacks that have plagued the cryptocurrency exchange industry over the years.
Nwosu also stated that the licensing process under Gibraltar’s new legislation impressed him, telling FT: “What impressed us was that this [legislation] was in the works for a long time. It’s been well thought out, well considered. They are focusing on quality over quantity.”
Gibraltar has been a haven for many virtual casinos because it offers low taxes for business based in the region. Recently, the British Overseas Territory introduced new rules specifically applying to the blockchain, which it hopes, will increase the success of blockchain-based companies in the region. This legislation was the first of its kind in Europe.
With this and more changes, Gibraltar seems to be creating a crypto-friendly environment like that of Malta. However, since UK is set to leave the EU next spring, there are many uncertainties and the move might affect Gibraltar’s dream of becoming a crypto and blockchain hub.
The new license comes as good news to Coinfloor, which recently laid off around 40 employees as part of the company’s restructuring process. The exchange, which was founded in 2013, made the decision at a time when there were increased difficulties for businesses in the cryptocurrency space following the bear market conditions.
Note: Tokens on the Bitcoin Core (segwit) Chain are Referred to as BTC coins. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is today the only Bitcoin implementation that follows Satoshi Nakamoto’s original whitepaper for Peer to Peer Electronic Cash. Bitcoin BCH is the only major public blockchain that maintains the original vision for Bitcoin as fast, frictionless, electronic cash.
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Coinfloor, the UK’s oldest cryptocurrency exchange, is to lay off staff following the announcement of a slew of redundancies at the firm this week, Financial News reported.
Founded in 2013, Coinfloor is considered to be the first cryptocurrency exchange to setup in the UK. Focused on institutional and larger investors, the platform currently enjoys daily trading volumes in the region of $1 million.
However, according to informed sources, the exchange is now turning to significant redundancies amongst its 40 strong team, as part of a wider essential restructuring of their business.
Coinfloor CEO Obi Nwosu was quoted by the news outlet as saying the move has been prompted by changes in trading volumes at the exchange over recent months. He confirmed to Financial News, “Coinfloor is currently undergoing a business restructure to focus on our competitive advantages in the marketplace and to best serve our clients. As part of this restructure, we are making some staff changes and redundancies.”
The news comes at a time of increasing difficulties for some notable cryptocurrency exchanges, following the bear market conditions that have prevailed through much of 2018 so far.
In the last few weeks, similar rumours had emerged from Kraken, suggesting they too were laying off staff, with their offices in Halifax, Canada, earmarked for closure.
However, the firm subsequently denied this was the case, issuing an unequivocal statement that they “can confirm that we are not shutting down any operations in any specific place.”
Much of the difficulties can be attributed to the plummeting price of BTC, dramatically down on its highs of nearly $20,000 in late 2017. According to a growing number of crypto analysts, it looks unlikely BTC will even nearly recover this lost ground any time soon, if ever.
According to Nwosu, Coinfloor has handled as much as $1 billion in BTC transactions over the last 12 months—perhaps indicative of the current extent of their apparent problems.
While it remains to be seen whether the rumours of job losses are confirmed, the news is further confirmation of the dwindling relevance of the old BTC coin in today’s cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Note: Tokens on the Bitcoin Core (segwit) Chain are Referred to as BTC coins. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is today the only Bitcoin implementation that follows Satoshi Nakamoto’s original whitepaper for Peer to Peer Electronic Cash. Bitcoin BCH is the only major public blockchain that maintains the original vision for Bitcoin as fast, frictionless, electronic cash.
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