Circle Financial, a US-based crypto-asset and blockchain services company, has announced that it has obtained conditional registration in France from the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF).
The conditional registration allows Circle to launch its crypto solutions and services within the borders of France. As part of the registration, the firm is now looking to hire a Head of Operation & Regulatory Affairs who will oversee the business launch and ongoing operations for France.
This latest step paves the way for the company to deploy its services in the European country, the first of many that will be employed as it expands its offerings to other countries in the European Economic Area (EEA) and beyond. Circle is already registered and regulated in the United States with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
The news comes shortly after the company announced a partnership with the bank Natixis to develop a euro stablecoin. This new stablecoin will be based on the public Ethereum blockchain, and it will be used for payments and currency swaps. The news of France’s conditional registration was first reported in a blog post on the company’s website.
Circle’s Chief Compliance Officer Mathieu Vaissié commented on the development in the blog post, stating: “This registration is a major milestone, and it brings us another step closer to our goal of providing responsible people around the world with access to smart, secure, and mainstream-friendly services for buying, selling, holding, and using digital assets.”
The blog post also mentioned that Circle is in the process of obtaining registrations from other regulators and jurisdictions to further expand its reach. Moreover, the company recently recruited Francesco Venier as the Vice President of Europe, and he will be responsible for leading its business launch in France and other countries in the EEA. He will be assisted by Pierre Lapointe, an experienced entrepreneur and lawyer in France, who will be heading Circle’s operations and regulatory affairs in the country.
