Swedish Financial Watchdog Investigating Two Local Crypto Exchanges
The authority is examining how Safello and Goobit are implementing anti-money laundering rules.
Oct 21, 2021 at 1:10 p.m. UTCUpdated May 11, 2023 at 3:42 p.m. UTC
:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/NCAVB2TJV5BE3KFY6ENKJQFDIY.jpg)
/arc-photo-coindesk/arc2-prod/public/LXF2COBSKBCNHNRE3WTK2BZ7GE.png)
Sweden’s Financial Supervisory Authority (FI) is investigating two local crypto firms, Safello and Goobit, according to an announcement on its official website.
- FI said on Thursday it wants to know how local crypto firms are complying with the European nation’s anti-money laundering (AML) rules.
- To that end, FI has picked what it calls two “market-leading” companies that have a combined market capitalization of over 570 million Swedish krona ($67 million).
- According to the announcement, crypto firms act as a bridge between traditional finance and the digital asset sector, which has “a high risk of money laundering.”
- “Therefore, FI has initiated investigations into how Safello and Goobit follow the money-laundering rules,” the announcement said.
- FI reiterated that companies that offer virtual currency services are required to register with the agency as financial institutions to comply with the Act on Currency Exchange and Other Financial Activities (LVA)
- Both Safello and Goobit are listed on Nasdaq’s First North Growth Market, an alternative marketplace of Nasdaq Nordic for small to medium-sized companies.
- In May, Safello’s planned initial public offering (IPO) was oversubscribed by 1,240%.
- At the time of reporting, Safello shares were down 6% while Goobit was down 9%.
:format(webp)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/coindesk/9c8b3491-ddb0-4e4a-8964-81cb59954944.png)
Sandali Handagama is CoinDesk's deputy managing editor for policy and regulations, EMEA. She does not own any crypto.