Crypto Lender Nexo Sues Cayman Island's Regulator for Denied VASP Registration

Crypto lender Nexo has sued the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority to get the regulator to reverse its rejection of Nexo's application to register as a virtual asset services provider (VASP), according to a court document filed last week.

The regulator initially refused the company's Dec. 20 application, citing "insufficient documentation on customer risk assessment and enterprise risk assessment" plus deficiencies in anti-money laundering procedures as several of the reasons.

However, Nexo argued in the court document that the grounds of the application were that the reasons were not "satisfactory" nor "sufficiently detailed."

"[The lawsuit] is a natural reflection of Nexo's ongoing license acquisition mission around the world and something quite normal that occasionally happens throughout the process of getting authorized," a spokesperson from Nexo told CoinDesk in a statement.

Nexo has been scrutinized by regulators lately. It is being investigated by authorities in Bulgaria for suspicion of money laundering and tax offenses among other things, which it has denied.