Israeli Regulator Grants License To Digital Asset Exchange Platform

The ISACA (Insurance & Savings Capital Market Authority), which is the capital markets regulator in Israel, recently granted a license to Bits of Gold.

The company received a license to operate as a crypto services provider, which is the first of its kind to be issued in the country.

With this license, the company will be able to offer crypto custodian services and will also be responsible for the safekeeping of funds that are deposited by its retail clients.

Law amendment

The fact that the ISACA has granted this license to Bits of Gold is a first in Israel because no active company had been issued one before.

The license from the capital markets regulator allows the crypto exchange to provide custodian services to its clients and retail clients will also be able to keep their money insured and safe.

They will do so through a wallet application that the company will introduce sometime in October. A statement revealed that Bits of Gold had been waiting for the license for about five years now.

Since the law was amended back in 2016, it has given ISACA the authority to grant crypto entities an operating license.

Bits of Gold

The chief executive of Bits of Gold, Youval Rouach said that with the help of their technology, financial institutions and banks will be able to benefit from what cryptocurrencies can offer to their clients.

The CEO said that they have been working on developing Bit Gold Connect for the last two years. He added that fintech companies and banks in Israel and Europe would be able to connect to their well-established infrastructures.

Moreover, they will also be able to give their clients access to diverse crypto solutions, which means that they will be able to purchase, hold and sell cryptocurrencies in a safe, easy and regulated manner.

Previous license

Before ISACA issued the new crypto provider license to Bits of Gold, the company had been operating with a ‘currency service provider’ license that had been granted in 2013 in Israel.

But, there was a change in this permit back in 2018 and it had become a ‘business continuation’ permit. The crypto exchange platform had used this permit before it was issued the new license.

The company said in a statement that with the recent orders that had been issued by the Bank of Israel and the license issued by ISACA, the crypto exchange will be able to fix some of the problems and issues.

This is particularly referring to the banking problems that crypto holders in Israel have had to deal with for years because crypto was not regulated in the country.

A number of other countries around the world are looking at crypto regulation seriously, given the high rate of adoption of these digital currencies.

In order to do so, many will have to make amendments to their existing laws, much like it has been done in Israel for now.