Elrond bought the company in January, and it aims to start operating as a virtual asset service provider in Europe in a few months.
The Portuguese central bank (Banco de Portugal) has granted Utrust, a Portugal-based on-chain crypto payments startup, a licence to operate as a virtual asset service provider, according to Nuno Correia, co-founder and chief strategy officer of Utrust.
Utrust is now licensed and regulated as a crypto service provider in Estonia, allowing it to provide services throughout the European Union, including Portugal. However, Correia stated that the company hopes to begin operating in those territories in a few months with its new licence, which is given by a central bank and provides additional reassurance to partners and customers.
In June, Banco de Portugal granted Critoloja and Mind The Coin their first licences as virtual asset service providers, recognising them as virtual asset service providers. Luso Digital Assets, which is registered in 36 countries, including France, the United Kingdom, and Spain, has previously been granted a crypto exchange licence by the bank.
Elrond, a layer 1 smart-contract platform that uses the web assembly (WASM) virtual machine, bought Utrust in January.
According to Correia, Utrust was granted the only full all-categories licence authorised by Banco de Portugal thus far. A corporation can use the licence to provide exchange services between fiat and digital assets, as well as between digital assets. According to an official document published by the monetary authorities, it also allows a company to move virtual assets between wallets and provide virtual asset protection services.
Disclaimer: These are the writer’s opinions and should not be considered investment advice. Readers should do their own research.
