Annjoy Makena
Societe Generale, also known as SocGen, has made history by becoming the first company obtaining a cryptocurrency license in France. The financial services firm’s crypto division, SG Forge, received several licensed services on July 18th.
The financial regulatory authority of France, known as Autorité des Marchés Financiers, has given its official approval to the company, allowing it to offer digital asset custody services. SG Forge has now obtained licenses for facilitating the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. Additionally, the company is authorized to handle the “receipt and transmission” of third-party crypto orders.
According to Societe Generale, the DASP license is the “highest level” of virtual asset certification currently available to businesses. It highlighted the license’s emphasis on safety, compliance, internal management, and regulatory assets.
The company stated that obtaining the license would help the development of its Euro CoinVertible (EURCV) stablecoin and allow them to serve the demands of institutional clients. When independent developers brought up potential bugs in the project’s code after the stablecoin was launched on the Ethereum network in April, it drew criticism.
SG Forge also recognized that the license would assist them in getting ready to operate per the forthcoming MiCA regulations in Europe. According to a Bloomberg report, from January 2025, crypto services will be mandated to hold a license from an EU member state to function under the MiCA regulations within the region.
SG Forge mentioned that it acquired its present DASP license after obtaining its DASP registration status in September 2022. The company referred to that registration as a “compulsory process” that paved the way for engaging in a range of activities. The registration specifically authorized the firm to provide services, like digital asset custody, buying and selling digital assets for fiat currency, and conducting digital asset trading.
SG Forge is the only company to have gotten a French DASP license; ninety other businesses have only obtained a lower-level DASP registration from France. Binance France, Etoro, Crypto.com (doing business as Foris), and Bitpanda are some of the major companies that have obtained this registration.
