Bitcoin exchanges received licenses from the Central Bank of Portugal, giving them the right to operate in the country.
In early 2021, Portugal entered into force a law regulating the operation of trading platforms focused on the cryptosphere.
The press center of the Central Bank said that the licenses were received by the Criptoloja and Mind The Coin platforms. Thus, in Portugal, two exchanges began to operate legally since the entry into force of the law on the cryptosphere.
The CEO of the Criptoloja platform, Pedro Borges, told that his trading platform had sent an application for a license to the Central Bank in September last year. That is, the Central Bank has been considering the application for about nine months.
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Borges emphasized: “It’s been a long journey. Becoming a regulated exchange in Portugal is a great success.”
The Criptoloja exchange will start serving crypto traders within the next few weeks. Representatives of the Bank of Portugal have not yet commented on the issuance of licenses to the first trading floors.
Note that in the summer of 2019, the Portuguese authorities exempted local bitcoin traders from taxes. The country’s Tax Office clarified that this decision is based on a 2015 European Court ruling.