Bitcoin Exchange Prasos Falling out of Favor with Finnish Banks
Banks in Finland are turning down business with a large Nordic cryptocurrency exchange.
Prasos, based in Finland, has now had four bank accounts closed and is now dependent on just one account. The platform exchanges cryptocurrencies for euros and relies upon banks for its service, but they’re becoming increasingly wary due to uncertainty regarding the legality of the operations.
Cryptocurrency regulation is currently unclear, but banks are erring on caution. They’re particularly wary of involvement with money laundering, believing the anonymous or pseudo-anonymous nature of virtual currencies to be shaky legal ground. An agreement was reached at the European Union last year which we would see cryptocurrency fall under the same anti-money laundering regulation as fiat funds, and whilst this is not yet being enforced, banks are keeping well clear of involvement.
The Prasos platform has lost its connection with banks following a tenfold increase in volume since the prior year, with the $185m sum raising suspicions among institutions.
Founded in 2012, the Prasos team were united by the vision of a societal revolution using blockchain technology, stating their mission as to provide services that are easy to use to spread blockchain adoption.
“We believe cryptocurrencies are a way of equalizing societal power structures as they allow regular people the chance to control their own money.”
Prasos, in fact, hosts six separate services, and boast five years of expertise in blockchain technology, currently specializing in the development of Lightning Networks. The most well-known is Coinmotion, the investment platform, but investors an also access Bittiraha, a Bitcoin broker service. Alongside these services, the platform offers Coinmotion Instant, an instant cryptocurrency purchase platform, and merchant services are on the way.
Most interestingly of all, however, is Prasos’ Denarium service, which offers physical Bitcoins, available in brass, silver and gold.
The company is also looking to the future with the Bittimaatti service, which is providing Bitcoin ATMs:
Whilst banks may be cautious, Prasos is confident that they are acting legally an here for the future. They told reporters of increasing Know Your Customer compliance, which came into effect this month.
“We’ve created identification practices, which we have taken into use in March, and they comply fully with anti-money laundering laws and regulations, even though authorities do not even require this from us as our business in not under regulatory obligations.”
Featured image from Shutterstock.
