NY Grants Fifth-Ever BitLicense to Crypto Exchange Genesis Global Trading

Genesis Global Trading has obtained a BitLicense from the state Department of Financial Services, making it only the fifth firm in three years to receive the controversial license.

The cryptocurrency exchange, based in New York City, and DFS announced the news in separate press releases Thursday.

In the regulator's release, New York financial services superintendent Maria Vullo said, "New York continues to lead the nation in regulating the growing fintech industry."

The BitLicense has come in for intense criticism from cryptocurrency entrepreneurs.

"That's the rate of innovation in New York.".

Despite lacking a BitLicense prior to this week, Genesis Trading has been operating in New York under a safe harbor provision.

The exchange caters to high net worth and institutional investors and offers round-the-clock trading in bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ether, ethereum classic, XRP, litecoin and zcash.

Paxos holds a limited-purpose trust company charter from DFS, as does Gemini Trust Company, a cryptocurrency exchange.

New York became the first state to craft a regulatory structure specifically for cryptocurrencies in 2014, and finalized the BitLicense in August 2015.

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