“80% of Digital Asset Service Providers in Estonia Stop Working After Regulatory Amendments”

It became known that 80% or almost 400 digital asset service providers (Virtual Asset Service Providers – VASP) in Estonia have voluntarily stopped working or had their licenses revoked. This happened after the amendments adopted by the government in the laws on the prevention of terrorist financing and the prevention of money laundering.

The amended laws expand the scope of VASP, require digital asset service providers to have legal ties to Estonia. Licensing fees were also raised and other stricter requirements were adopted, such as the sharing of capital information.

According to the Estonian Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), nearly 200 local cryptocurrency service providers have voluntarily ceased operations due to the new requirements and non-compliance with them. On the other hand, another 189 licenses were revoked.

FIU has also pointed out several problems that it has found in companies whose licenses have been revoked. It is significant that most of the cases involved misleading information. For example, some companies had registered board members and company contacts without their knowledge and consent. Also, many companies copied business plans and other types of documentation from each other, where, moreover, there was no evidence of connection with Estonia.