Date Published 09/04/2024
The Central Bank of Ireland maintains a public register of firms registered as “Virtual Asset Service Providers” or “VASPs” pursuant to Section 106A of the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Acts 2010 to 2021 and this shows the addition of further new entities as of June 2024, bringing the total to fourteen entities being registered as VASPs in Ireland.
The new entities registered in 2024 are Fortuna Digital Custody Ltd and Ramp Swaps (Ireland) Limited. Entities registered in 2023 include Ripple Markets Ireland Limited, Moonpay Technology Services Limited, Zodia Markets (Ireland) Limited, Payward Europe Solutions Limited, NoFrixion Limited and Paysafe Payment Solutions Limited. The remaining entities are Zodia Custody Ireland Limited , Gemini Intergalactic Europe Limited, Coinbase Custody International Limited, Payward Europe Solutions Limited and Coinbase Europe Limited. In addition Coinbase announced in October 2023 that Ireland is to be its main European hub for services under MiCA.
Virtual Asset Service Providers are registered and supervised by the Central Bank of Ireland for the purposes of anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism. In this regard a “Virtual Asset Service Provider” means a person who by way of business carries out one or more of the following activities for, or on behalf of, another person: (a) exchange between virtual assets and fiat currencies; (b) exchange between one or more forms of virtual assets; (c) transfer of virtual assets, that is to say, conduct a transaction on behalf of another person that moves a virtual asset from one virtual asset address or account to another; (d) custodian wallet provider; (e) participation in, and provision of, financial services related to an issuer’s offer or sale of a virtual asset or both; but does not include a designated person that is not a financial or credit institution and that provides virtual asset services in an incidental manner and is subject to supervision by a national competent authority, other than the Central Bank of Ireland. A “Virtual asset” for such purposes means a digital representation of value that can be digitally traded, or transferred, and can be used for payment or investment purposes. Virtual assets do not include digital representations of fiat currencies, securities and other financial assets.