Spain’s Central Bank Licenses Bit2Me to Be Country’s First Crypto Services Provider

Bit2Me, a leading Spanish crypto exchange, has obtained approval from the Bank of Spain to be the “first provider of services for the exchange of virtual currency for fiat currency and the custody of digital wallets,” the company announced Thursday.

Bit2Me now will be able to provide Spanish-based banks with a white-label service allowing crypto trading on their platforms, a company official told CoinDesk, adding that it is currently in negotiations with “several banks.”

With its approval, the Bank of Spain recognized that the company complies with “the requirements of commercial and professional honorability established for credit institutions and with the regulations for the prevention of money laundering,” according to Bit2Me.

In October the Bank of Spain issued instructions to institutions on how to register with the central bank to offer crypto-related services in the country.

Bit2Me, headquartered in Spain, offers crypto services in more than 100 countries and recorded a trading volume of EUR 1.1 billion ($1.25 billion) in 2021, the company said in a statement.

Bit2me raised EUR 20 million ($22.7 million) via an initial coin offering in 2021 and plans to start operating in Brazil during the first quarter of 2022, Bit2Me's COO, Andrei Manuel, told CoinDesk in January. The company plans to allow Brazilian users to buy and sell crypto with fiat and provide crypto-to-crypto trading.

In July, Bit2Me hired former Coinbase UK CEO Zeeshan Feroz as a strategic adviser and later named Baldomero Falcones, the former president of Mastercard International, as a senior adviser.