Meanwhile, Circle has also updated its app, enabling American users to send, receive and hold United States dollars, in addition to using bitcoin for payments.
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Following its implementation earlier this year and the exodus of some bitcoin companies from New York, the BitLicense framework granted its very first regulatory license to mobile payments company Circle this week.
The BitLicense, includes consumer protections, anti-money laundering compliance and cyber security guidelines, according to DFS.
Bruce Fenton, executive director of the nonprofit Bitcoin Foundation, said it was good news that Circle was able to comply with the rules, which he called “burdensome”.
Internet entrepreneurs Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville founded Circle in 2013.
“We’ve been fairly vocal about our concerns with the BitLicense, especially in its initial incarnation”.
After finalizing the Bitlicense regulation in June this year, the New York State Department of Financial Services on Tuesday officially issued the first approval to a Bitlicense application.
The BitLicense imposes some of the same conditions on companies operating with virtual currencies such as bitcoin as it does with institutions handling conventional currencies. The service manages the currency conversion automatically.
New York’s BitLicense has drawn a lot of criticism from members of the bitcoin community who claimed that this type of regulation would end up stifling innovation. New York regulators are still evaluating another two dozen companies that have applied for the license. As WSJ reported, there is continuing controversy over whether the BitLicense itself has hurt demand for bitcoin, as some firms have “geofenced” New York and will not do business there. Some have announced their intentions to get it, others said they will no longer be serving New York customers.
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“We are trying to move expeditiously”, said Matthew Anderson, the department’s superintendent for public affairs, to the Wall Street Journal.
