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With VASP Supervision, Baltic Nations Share Growing Pains, Learning Curve

By Koos Couvée

Lithuanian regulators will soon obtain powers to impose business restrictions on cryptocurrency exchanges and other virtual asset services platforms, or VASPs, caught violating anti-money laundering rules, and in the worst cases, revoke their operating licenses. For Lithuania's financial intelligence unit, or FIU, which supervises VASPs for AML purposes, the reforms, slated to come into force in January, cannot come soon enough. More than 500 cryptocurrency exchanges currently call Lithuania home—or at least do on paper—having taken advantage of one of the EU's most liberal licensing frameworks. "Lithuania's regime allows for a VASP to register here without any prior authorization," Kristina...

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