Estonia squeezes out 400 crypto firms after new laws

As a result of the government’s recently enhanced Terrorist Financing Prevention and anti-money laundering regulations (AML), which went into effect in March, around 400 Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPS) in Estonia have voluntarily stopped down or had their licenses revoked.

In addition to adopting the Financial Action Task Force Travel Rule, the modified laws also increased license fees, increased capital and information reporting requirements, broadened the definition of VASPs, mandated that companies have legitimate ties to Estonia, and expanded the specified scope of VASPs.

According to a May 8 statement from the Estonian Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), the amendment to the AML laws on March 15 has since seen almost 200 domestic crypto service providers voluntarily shut down.

Following the hefty clear-out, there were 100 active crypto firms registered in Estonia as of May 1, according to the FIU.

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