Estonia has withdrawn over 1,000 licenses from cryptocurrency-related firms within this year in 2020, apparently due to the burden of monitoring compliance.
Veiko Tali, secretary-general of the Ministry of Finance, officially revealed within an official post on Friday that a lot of the businesses had “minimal” links to Estonia and clientele in “remote countries.”
The mass license revocation by the Financial Intelligence Unit still leaves around 400 VASPs [Virtual Currency Service Providers] licensed in Estonia, he explained.
The secretary-general added that monitoring and regulation of virtual currency service providers [VASPs] are in “continuous need of heightened attention,” as well as “important regulatory changes” are on the way for the industry.
Moreover, Estonia’s resources for monitoring compliance by VASPS are limited, Tali explained.
Estonia joined the EU [European Union] earlier in May 2004, which suggests that the country aligns with EU regulations concerning AML [Anti-Money Laundering] along with several other measures.