Following the transposition of the 5th AML Directive into national legislation, the definition of “obliged entities” under article 2A under the Prevention and Suppression of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Law of 2007-2021 (the “AML Law”) has been revised to include the Crypto-Asset Services Providers (the “CASPs”).
Thereafter, the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (the “CySEC”) pursuant to Article 61E of the AML Law, has issued the Directive 269/2021 (the “Directive”) regarding the establishment of a Register of CASPs (the “Register”).
The establishment of the Register constitutes a very positive and promising initiative of Cyprus towards cryptocurrency and distributed ledger technologies as Cyprus appears to encourage the growth and development of a transparent innovative financial sector.