As any cryptocurrency entrepreneur will tell you, getting a BitLicense is difficult and costly. Not only that, but as written the regulation has grey areas relating to custody, requires state approval before a company can add new products or services, and very few licenses have been issued.
The result of this is that many cryptocurrency businesses are choosing to simply forgo doing business with customers in New York.
We are glad to see the New York legislature taking the step of creating a task force to better evaluate the cryptocurrency landscape and its own regulatory stance toward the technology, which is well overdue. As Assemblyman Clyde Vanel noted, “It has been nearly four years since the implementation of the BitLicense. In the cryptocurrency space and technology in general, a few months is equivalent to years.”
We look forward engaging with the task force on this important mission.