US-licensed crypto asset brokerage Voyager is a step closer to get final licensing approval from the French regulators. The dual regulatory structure in France, which includes the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) and the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR), has declared Voyager “Fit and Proper” to operate under the LGO registration.
The publicly traded crypto-asset broker has merged its European operations in 2020 into LGO, an AMF regulated entity in France. As a result, Voyager obtained direct control of the regulated entity which helped expedite its European strategy, now becoming the first non-French, non-European firm to get this designation.
Voyager’s app trawls through multiple cryptocurrency exchanges and trading venues to find the best buy and sell price or that is closest to the price that had been offered to the user.
“This recognition is a major step in the process to bring the Voyager app and product suite to European customers and continues our vision of building Voyager into a truly global financial services company. Leveraging the recent acquisition of Coinify, which has fully compliant KYC and AML solutions as well as fiat on-ramps in over 20 currencies, Voyager is positioned for an initial launch of our trading app in certain European countries late in the March 2022 quarter,” said Steve Ehrlich, CEO and Co-founder of Voyager.
“Voyager will be a key player in Europe and internationally. We are happy that a non-European player has chosen France to set up and develop its activities. We will continue to ensure that the legal framework is attractive and stable for all those who wish to undertake in the crypto-asset sector,” commented Pierre Person of the Assemblee Nationale.
Voyager is headed by Stephen Ehrlich, the former CEO and founder of retail brokerage Lightspeed Financial who also previously ran the professional trading arm of online stock broker E*Trade. The startup’s other co-founders include Philip Eytan, an early Uber investor, and Oscar Salazar, the former chief technology officer of the ride-hailing company.
Voyager’s agency brokerage platform has a service focused squarely on the institutional market, going up against established players like Coinbase’ Pro and Circle’s CircleTrade.
The service helps professional investors, including buy-side firms, hedge funds, brokerages, and market makers, gain exposure to crypto assets using an over-the-counter (OTC) trading desk. In addition, they are able to purchase cryptocurrencies without incurring commission charges in a similar pattern to what stock trading app Robinhood currently offers.
