At the beginning of 2022, 381 valid crypto licenses have been recorded by the Estonia FIA. By June 15, 2022, the virtual asset service providers (VASP), licensed by the Estonian FIU, had applied amendments for 135 authorizations. While the regulator revoked 18 licenses, 94 service providers surrendered their authorizations in 2022. In 2021, 253 active VASPs had some 4.8 million clients and processed €20.3 billion within 12 months. 85% of this volume came from only 15 service providers, most of them have not submitted any reports of suspicious transactions.
Next the FIU analyses, whether the amendments of the authorizations comply with the new regulations foreseen by the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act. Valid authorizations not being applied for amendment will be reviewed as well.
In March 2022, the FIU revoked the license of Garantex Europe OÜ, which evidently laundered billions of euros. According to the findings of the Estonian FIU, Garantex processed €5 billion, “and a large part of the business and customers were related to Russia and other high-risk countries.”
Read the Garantex report here.
“More than third virtual asset service providers will seek out new countries with lower quality of supervision, and regulations not yet meeting the risks and international standards related to virtual asset service providers,” said Matis Mäeker, the head of the Estonian Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).
