Robinhood and LibertyX have been officially gained the approval to deal in Virtual currencies within New York City from the NYDFS.
Robinhood Crypto Launches in New York City
Robinhood, which is a trading platform for stocks, will be expanding its affiliation with digital currencies for the citizens of New York. This feature is however not new to Robinhood users in other parts of the United States, the only difference is that the firm was holding out on providing Crypto related services to New Yorkers awaiting approval from the NYDFS (New York State Department of Financial Services).
The state of New York has approved the app to provide Crypto services through seven digital currencies which include Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Litecoin. The Robinhood Crypto feature was already accessible to residents within various states within the US. Robinhood has been recently facing some controversy on account of the firm releasing bank accounts that are interest bearing which the SIPC (Securities Investor Protection Corporation) does not cover.
Vlad Tenev, the co-chief executive of Robinhood in the press release thanked the NYDFS for their decision saying that the agency had been accommodating and provided a lot of support throughout the process. Tenev added that Robinhood will be looking forwards to receiving guidance from the agency during the process of launching Robinhood Crypto in the New York area.
Extensive Regulation Inhibiting Innovation
LibertyX is a nationwide network that enables retailers, in exchange for Bitcoin, to receive transactions in cash and credit cards. LibertyX, which going by DFS is the first firm to receive approval for the selling of Crypto in exchange for debit cards, will henceforth be able to operate within New York City. Terminals affiliated with LibertyX will now be able to facilitate debit card purchases on a regular basis. Within New York, Bitcoin ATMs only facilitate transactions using cash while Coinbase only accepts credit cards.
The NYDFS released a press statement stating that it has and will continue to answer to innovations taking place within the financial markets space in a prompt an responsible manner. The agency stated that this response will be made by providing licenses for: money transmitters through the money transmitters’ law of New York, online lenders through banking law of New York and digital currency exchanges through the financial services law.
This latest approval puts the total number of licences approved by the DFS, to companies within the Crypto sphere, to sixteen. Critics have however put the agency on blast in the recent past accusing them of slow processing of the applications. This is the reason why extensive regulation has been said to be one of the roadblocks for innovations. Investors pull their resources together into a project only to have the government slow down the project on account of regulation.
Varying Opinions On The Introduction of the BitLicense
New York City’s introduction of the BitLicense was received contentiously by many people within the Crypto community. Crypto exchanges on their part protested this introduction by disregarding customers within New York City in their offerings and services.