UK Watchdog Grants Third E-Money Licence to Cryptocurrency Company, Wirex
- The main product of Wirex is a cryptocurrency payment card.

E-Licence for E-Coin
The recipient company is Wirex of London, whose main product is a cryptocurrency payment card. It was established in 2014 as E-Coin, rebranded to Wirex in February 2016 and by September 2017 had registered $1 billion of transactions and 800,000 users, according to its website.
The card is pre-paid debit card, meaning that it must be loaded up with money before use. It converts cryptocurrency into pounds, euros and dollars to allow everyday transactions. In April 2018 it added Litecoin to its roster of supported altcoins, which number over 50 according to its website.
Wirex also operates a payment network called W-Pay, which it launched in September 2017. The company said in the press release that the approval, which took approximately nine months to process, will allow it to support 25 additional currencies.
Wirex co-founder Dmitry Lazarichev said: “The licence will not materially affect how we engage with our current clients, although they will benefit from more streamlined services and potentially even lower rates than we currently offer.”
Other founder Pavel Matveev added that the company is pursuing additional licences in Singapore, Japan and North America. The firm currently has offices in London, Singapore, Tokyo, Delaware, Toronto and Kiev.
Playing in the sandbox
In March, the FCA granted an e-money licence to Coinbase, the company behind the US' biggest cryptocurrency exchange. This granted that company access to British banks and the EU, and in August the firm added support for pound sterling to make it easier for UK citizens to buy cryptocurrency.
The FCA has been managing a sandbox, or protected testing environment, for financial technology firms since June 2016. In June and July 2018 it accepted two British cryptocurrency companies to this programme, Globacap and BlockEx. Both firms want to use Blockchain Blockchain Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned.) In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tamper with. The Evolution of BlockchainBlockchain was originally invented by an individual or group of people under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. The purpose of blockchain was originally to serve as the public transaction ledger of Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency.In particular, bundles of transaction data, called “blocks”, are added to the ledger in a chronological fashion, forming a “chain.” These blocks include things like date, time, dollar amount, and (in some cases) the public addresses of the sender and the receiver.The computers responsible for upholding a blockchain network are called “nodes.” These nodes carry out the duties necessary to confirm the transactions and add them to the ledger. In exchange for their work, the nodes receive rewards in the form of crypto tokens.By storing data via a peer-to-peer network (P2P), blockchain controls for a wide range of risks that are traditionally inherent with data being held centrally.Of note, P2P blockchain networks lack centralized points of vulnerability. Consequently, hackers cannot exploit these networks via normalized means nor does the network possess a central failure point.In order to hack or alter a blockchain’s ledger, more than half of the nodes must be compromised. Looking ahead, blockchain technology is an area of extensive research across multiple industries, including financial services and payments, among others. Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned.) In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tamper with. The Evolution of BlockchainBlockchain was originally invented by an individual or group of people under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. The purpose of blockchain was originally to serve as the public transaction ledger of Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency.In particular, bundles of transaction data, called “blocks”, are added to the ledger in a chronological fashion, forming a “chain.” These blocks include things like date, time, dollar amount, and (in some cases) the public addresses of the sender and the receiver.The computers responsible for upholding a blockchain network are called “nodes.” These nodes carry out the duties necessary to confirm the transactions and add them to the ledger. In exchange for their work, the nodes receive rewards in the form of crypto tokens.By storing data via a peer-to-peer network (P2P), blockchain controls for a wide range of risks that are traditionally inherent with data being held centrally.Of note, P2P blockchain networks lack centralized points of vulnerability. Consequently, hackers cannot exploit these networks via normalized means nor does the network possess a central failure point.In order to hack or alter a blockchain’s ledger, more than half of the nodes must be compromised. Looking ahead, blockchain technology is an area of extensive research across multiple industries, including financial services and payments, among others. Read this Term technology to offer a range of financial services.
The watchdog said that of the 69 different companies that applied for a place in its latest induction phase, 40 percent use blockchain in some way.
At the same time, the FCA has been busy warning the public about numerous cryptocurrency-related companies that are either unregulated or outright scams. In June it issued a notice against Cryptorobot365, and in August warned against dealing with the companies Fair Oaks Crypto, BINEXT Solutions SRL, SMO Investments Limited, and 365 Markets.
It also recently sent a letter to UK banks telling them to apply 'enhanced scrutiny' on customers that use cryptocurrency.
E-Licence for E-Coin
The recipient company is Wirex of London, whose main product is a cryptocurrency payment card. It was established in 2014 as E-Coin, rebranded to Wirex in February 2016 and by September 2017 had registered $1 billion of transactions and 800,000 users, according to its website.
The card is pre-paid debit card, meaning that it must be loaded up with money before use. It converts cryptocurrency into pounds, euros and dollars to allow everyday transactions. In April 2018 it added Litecoin to its roster of supported altcoins, which number over 50 according to its website.
Wirex also operates a payment network called W-Pay, which it launched in September 2017. The company said in the press release that the approval, which took approximately nine months to process, will allow it to support 25 additional currencies.
Wirex co-founder Dmitry Lazarichev said: “The licence will not materially affect how we engage with our current clients, although they will benefit from more streamlined services and potentially even lower rates than we currently offer.”
Other founder Pavel Matveev added that the company is pursuing additional licences in Singapore, Japan and North America. The firm currently has offices in London, Singapore, Tokyo, Delaware, Toronto and Kiev.
Playing in the sandbox
In March, the FCA granted an e-money licence to Coinbase, the company behind the US' biggest cryptocurrency exchange. This granted that company access to British banks and the EU, and in August the firm added support for pound sterling to make it easier for UK citizens to buy cryptocurrency.
The FCA has been managing a sandbox, or protected testing environment, for financial technology firms since June 2016. In June and July 2018 it accepted two British cryptocurrency companies to this programme, Globacap and BlockEx. Both firms want to use Blockchain Blockchain Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned.) In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tamper with. The Evolution of BlockchainBlockchain was originally invented by an individual or group of people under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. The purpose of blockchain was originally to serve as the public transaction ledger of Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency.In particular, bundles of transaction data, called “blocks”, are added to the ledger in a chronological fashion, forming a “chain.” These blocks include things like date, time, dollar amount, and (in some cases) the public addresses of the sender and the receiver.The computers responsible for upholding a blockchain network are called “nodes.” These nodes carry out the duties necessary to confirm the transactions and add them to the ledger. In exchange for their work, the nodes receive rewards in the form of crypto tokens.By storing data via a peer-to-peer network (P2P), blockchain controls for a wide range of risks that are traditionally inherent with data being held centrally.Of note, P2P blockchain networks lack centralized points of vulnerability. Consequently, hackers cannot exploit these networks via normalized means nor does the network possess a central failure point.In order to hack or alter a blockchain’s ledger, more than half of the nodes must be compromised. Looking ahead, blockchain technology is an area of extensive research across multiple industries, including financial services and payments, among others. Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned.) In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tamper with. The Evolution of BlockchainBlockchain was originally invented by an individual or group of people under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. The purpose of blockchain was originally to serve as the public transaction ledger of Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency.In particular, bundles of transaction data, called “blocks”, are added to the ledger in a chronological fashion, forming a “chain.” These blocks include things like date, time, dollar amount, and (in some cases) the public addresses of the sender and the receiver.The computers responsible for upholding a blockchain network are called “nodes.” These nodes carry out the duties necessary to confirm the transactions and add them to the ledger. In exchange for their work, the nodes receive rewards in the form of crypto tokens.By storing data via a peer-to-peer network (P2P), blockchain controls for a wide range of risks that are traditionally inherent with data being held centrally.Of note, P2P blockchain networks lack centralized points of vulnerability. Consequently, hackers cannot exploit these networks via normalized means nor does the network possess a central failure point.In order to hack or alter a blockchain’s ledger, more than half of the nodes must be compromised. Looking ahead, blockchain technology is an area of extensive research across multiple industries, including financial services and payments, among others. Read this Term technology to offer a range of financial services.
The watchdog said that of the 69 different companies that applied for a place in its latest induction phase, 40 percent use blockchain in some way.
At the same time, the FCA has been busy warning the public about numerous cryptocurrency-related companies that are either unregulated or outright scams. In June it issued a notice against Cryptorobot365, and in August warned against dealing with the companies Fair Oaks Crypto, BINEXT Solutions SRL, SMO Investments Limited, and 365 Markets.
It also recently sent a letter to UK banks telling them to apply 'enhanced scrutiny' on customers that use cryptocurrency.