France proves to be one of the most cryptocurrency-friendly countries in Europe, after the country’s third-largest bank, Société Générale, received approval to offer digital assets to its customers.
Société Générale gets approval to operate digital assets in France
The French regulator’s decision, which came in recent days, allows it to hold, sell and trade digital assets.
This important step toward more favorable regulation in an important country like France follows similar regulatory decisions by the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) for foreign crypto companies including Crypto.com, Binance, and Luno.
Just to give an example that explains well the favorable climate in the country toward the crypto world, last June, the Beaugrenelle shopping mall, announced that from Wednesday it will accept payments in cryptocurrencies, one of the first cases in Europe and the world.
And a few days ago the famous cryptocurrency platform Crypto.com, which has long since begun a dense promotional campaign especially in the world of sports, announced a 150 million euro investment in France to support its operations in the country. This includes the establishment of a Paris office as a base of operations in the European region.
Binance, the world’s largest exchange, on the other hand, has decided to invest €100 million in France after obtaining a license to operate in the country. “France is in a unique position to be the leader of this industry in Europe,” Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said from the stage at the Paris Blockchain Week Summit in March, adding that the company already has a team of about 50 people in the country.
This decision by the French regulator is another step toward a different attitude on the part of regulators and financial institutions and toward the world of cryptocurrencies.
About Société Générale
Founded in 1864 and with assets of more than 1.4 billion euros in 2020, with 117,000 employees in 66 countries worldwide, it is the third largest French bank and the sixth largest banking group in Europe, and certainly this new fact will make a lot of noise in the world of finance not only in Europe.
The bank had announced in September that it was ready to launch Bitcoin and crypto funds and custody services for digital assets, a service that has long been requested by French venture capitalists and funds, which so far struggled to find such a service offered by financial institutions in the country.
