Bitcoin Payments Servicer BitPay Gets BitLicense

Another BitLicense application has been approved.

According to an announcement from the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS):

“BitPay is authorized to offer clearing and settlement services to merchants willing to accept payment in bitcoin or issue payments in bitcoin, and is the first wholesale payments processor to be approved for a license.”

In a separate press release, CEO of BitPay Stephen Pair said, “New York state has one of the strictest policies around businesses involved in cryptocurrency and working through the approval processes to obtain a License was important to BitPay … We believe this hard work will pay off as New York presents significant business opportunities for BitPay.”

Headquartered in Atlanta, BitPay offers a wallet and has partnered with several online merchants to facilitate direct payments in both bitcoin and bitcoin cash, which the license also permits.

BitPay is only the eighth company to have received a BitLicense since New York’s cryptocurrency business regulations were implemented in 2015. Two other companies, Gemini and Paxos, have received charters, which allow them to serve institutional investors.

Fewer than half of the applications for BitLicenses have yet to be approved, though the DFS has only officially denied two – those of Snapcard and OKLink.

Tim Prentiss is a writer and editor for ETHNews. He has a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Nevada, Reno. He lives in Reno with his daughter. In his spare time he writes songs and disassembles perfectly good electronic devices.

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