Latin American Crypto Firm Ripio Approved to Operate in Spain as an Exchange
It’s the latest in a number of licenses to crypto companies granted by the Bank of Spain.
Jun 27, 2023 at 8:25 p.m. UTC
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Latin American crypto services provider Ripio has obtained approval from the Bank of Spain to operate as a “provider of virtual currency exchange services for fiat currency and custody of digital wallets,” the company announced Tuesday.
“After much hard work, Ripio finally approved to operate in Spain,” Sebastián Serrano, CEO of Ripio, said in a tweet.
Bit2Me, a leading Spanish crypto exchange, was the first company in the sector to obtain a crypto license from the Bank of Spain, with Bitpanda, Crypto.com, Bitstamp and BVNK subsequently also receiving approval to operate there.
Founded in Argentina and also operating in Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Chile, Mexico and the United States, Ripio has 8 million users who transact $200 million per month, the company stated.
In June, Ripio was part of the launch of LaChain – a new layer one blockchain created using the Polygon Supernets platform, focused on responding to specific needs in Latin America and maintained by regional companies such as SenseiNode, Num Finance, Cedalio and Buenbit.
In September 2021, the company raised $50 million in a Series B funding round to expand in Latin America.
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Andrés Engler was a CoinDesk editor based in Argentina, where he covers the Latin American crypto ecosystem. He holds BTC and ETH.