Genesis Becomes First NY Trading Firm to Receive BitLicense

Genesis Global Trading receives approval from the NY DFS to trade digital currencies with institutional trading partners.

Thu, 17/05/2018 - 17:52

Genesis Becomes First NY Trading Firm to Receive BitLicense

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Genesis Global Trading became the first NY-based trading firm to receive approval from the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) for a BitLicense, Thursday.

The BitLicense enables Genesis to trade digital currencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ripple (XRP), Litecoin (LTC) and Zcash (ZEC) with institutional trading partners.

BitLicense has been granted to only a handful of companies in the past three years and has been criticized by experts in the cryptocommunity.

Erik Voorhees, CEO of ShapeShift, called it an "absolute failure" at the Consensus 2018 conference which took place in NY earlier this week.
Genesis, which services institutional and high net worth private investors who wish to buy large blocks of digital currencies, has traded more than $750 bln in assets under a "safe harbor" provision with New York Department of Financial Services (DFS).

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Michael Moro, CEO of Genesis Global Trading, says:

"Although we have operated under a safe harbor provision in recent years, today's decision is an important step forward and reaffirms the robust compliance measures we have enacted as an established trading partner."

Genesis is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group (DCG) and a registered broker-dealer with the SEC and FINRA. In addition to Genesis, DCG owns Grayscale Investments, the largest asset manager in the digital currency industry, and CoinDesk, a leading media and events company.

About the author

Urvashi Verma

Urvashi Verma is a Chicago-based reporter who writes about the convergence of technology and business. She is interested in fintech, digital currencies, blockchain and currency markets. Urvashi formerly worked with the Times of Israel covering Israel's booming tech industry including Start-Up Nation, venture capital investment, and crowd-funding platforms.