Striga: The first VASP licensed under Estonia's new Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act
Striga: The first VASP licensed under Estonia's new Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act
- Striga
- 3 min read
Table of Contents
Striga is the first company in Estonia to be awarded a license under a new Estonian legal regime earlier this year.
Building a compliant European Crypto Business
Striga has given the authorization to operate on Sept. 20, the Estonian financial intelligence unit (FIU), an anti-money laundering enforcer, said in a statement dated Wednesday. Striga, the crypto and banking infrastructure, is now registered under an anti-money laundering law that seeks to clamp down on a previously liberal regime for regulating crypto firms.
The current state of crypto bank cards
Striga is betting on the new Estonian regulation as a seal of prestige and quality. Now on the verge of going live with a crypto banking-as-a-service platform, the growing company is focusing its resources on serving the crypto and fintech sectors. It will provide the infrastructure they need to launch comprehensive fiat & crypto banking solutions.
Estonia’s cutting-edge regulatory framework
Estonia’s journey towards being labeled the “incoming Silicon Valley of Europe” arguably started with Skype’s creation in 2003. By 2005 it had become a unicorn and provided the spark, but only recently have things ramped up. Since 2020, 6 unicorns have emerged, for a total of 10 overall.
The nascent crypto industry took note: startup-friendly European country, digital business ecosystem, and receptive regulation towards digital assets? Estonia looked like a blessing. Hence, over the last lustrum, hundreds of crypto companies were established.
As expected, the Financial Intelligence Unit eventually saw the underlying risk of being too open to virtual asset companies. Thus, they passed a rigorous set of new regulations in March 2022 to cull the crypto ecosystem, purge non-compliant companies, and empower fair players.
Striga Crypto-native Banking as a Service:
Your path to building and launching financial products
Join the financial businesses that use Striga’s cloud platform to delight their customers and launch their own products without the complexities that come when dealing with core banking solutions’ relationships, licensing, compliance and payments methods.
