- Germany wants crypto companies to apply for a license starting in 2020.
- Bitpay’s withdrawal will have a low impact since Germany has a well established electronic payment system.
BitPay, a well-known crypto payment processor, has suspended its operations in Germany indefinitely. Jan Jahosky, a BitPay PR representative stated that the reason behind the suspension was the creation and adoption of new regulations in the country. Specifically, Germany will require crypto businesses to obtain a license that’s issued by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority starting next year.
Jahosky said:
“Germany has publicly stated that they want crypto companies to apply for a license starting in 2020. We have paused operations in Germany while we evaluate the need for German licenses.”
Computer Base, a German technology news outlet, announced earlier that it would no longer be accepting Bitcoin due to BitPay’s suspension. However, the end of Bitcoin payments won’t likely have a significant effect on the firm’s revenue. Majority of their subscribers use PayPal to pay for their subscriptions. Only a fringe of Computer Base’s payments used Bitcoin to pay for their subscriptions.
Similarly, firms based in Germany are likely to be majorly unaffected by BitPay’s suspension. Since there are multiple well-established and easily accessible electronic payment systems in Germany, BitPay’s act of withdrawal is likely to have a low impact. The impact would have probably been more substantial if the company had to withdraw from a market in which Bitcoin was a prominent payment option.
BitPay also announced the updates to its “payments, login, and ID verification,” and the launch of a “dashboard” that “provides users access to transaction history and personalized home for both their blockchain payments and future BitPay payment features.”
Share
