The Central Bank of Portugal (Banco de Portugal) has just recorded a premiere: it has licensed two crypto exchanges.
Criptoloja and Mind the Coin are now official “virtual asset service providers.” The waiting period for the approval lasted for around nine months, as Criptoloja filed for approval on September 29th, 2020.
The CEO of the company, Pedro Borges, declared: “It was a long way. Being the first regulated exchange in Portugal means a lot.”
In April, a bank executive explained that Banco de Portugal had received five formal registration requests and 60 informal contacts, in total.
Borges has confirmed that Criptoloja wants to launch its operation “in the next couple of weeks,” and mentioned that the firm lets customers open an online account but hasn’t enabled online trading yet.