Regulated crypto payment services company BCB Group has partnered with Huobi Global to help the Seychelles-based exchange giant connect its trading desks to the banking system in the UK and Europe.
On Tuesday it was announced that customers of Huobi’s OTC (over-the-counter) platform will be able to instantly process transactions in euros and pounds sterling (GBP) via BCB’s BLINC network.
In recent years, cryptocurrency exchanges have had problems securing banking relationships and creating an interface to the world of fiat currency. Some major exchanges have massive daily volume in closed systems of crypto-to-crypto trading. Prior to partnering with BCB, Huobi did not have a European Fiat gateway, said Oliver von Landsberg-Sadie, founder and CEO of BCB Group.
“We are here to provide this robust infrastructure so that these people can just get on with trading and know that trades are taking place in a manner that is properly monitored and regulatory,” Landsberg-Sadie said in an interview.
The bar is high and Huobi has had to jump through some significant hoops; The whole process took some time, he added.
“We understand the importance of compliant and optimized service,” said Ciara Sun, Huobi’s director of global business, in a statement. “By partnering with BCB, we can offer a European fiat on and off ramping service that we know complies with the laws in this area. However, our customers in Europe can also experience a smooth and hassle-free user experience. ”
BCB, which started out as an OTC switch, worked with UK-based Clearbank as well as a few other European banks to enable crypto-to-fiat to be turned on and off. The BLINC real-time billing system, which is similar to SWIFT for crypto in that users are legally identifiable entities, is supported by R3’s Corda platform and Digital Asset Shared Ledger (DASL).
Huobi joins Bitstamp, the other major exchange using BCB’s BLINC payments network. BCB also works with Coinbase and Kraken, but these exchanges are not part of BLINC.
Huobi is the latest big, reputable exchange that BCB brought into the bank. Some more “types of in-flight” will be announced shortly, said Ben Sebley, partner with the BCB group.