The 6.8 square kilometer territory of Gibraltar is home to 35,000 people and several large international cryptocurrency companies. The British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar, governed by the United Kingdom and a major gateway to Europe, is an attractive jurisdiction for distributed ledger technologies (DLT) or simply cryptocurrencies.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance is now hiring for four positions at the “Rock of Gibraltar”, compared to the two posts from a week ago. CZ, CEO of Binance, met with the Chief Minister of Gibraltar, Fabian Picardo, in December 2021, after it was revealed that Picardo had the Binance app on his laptop:
Head of State’s tweet. What do you see? https://t.co/VKVzd8972T
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) December 1, 2021
CZ reportedly visited “The Rock” in 2022, and Binance Gibraltar job postings have since appeared on the exchange’s website. Cointelegraph contacted Binance to ask when the Gibraltar office would open. A spokesperson for Binance, which has no official headquarters internationally, told Cointelegraph that the group “is a remote-first organization and many of our employees work remotely.”
“Binance will establish multiple regional offices. France and Dubai will be our offices in the Europe and Middle East regions, respectively.”
The group did not respond to the question of whether it would establish a physical presence in Gibraltar. However, Binance would be in good company in the increasingly crypto-friendly British Overseas Territory.
Bitso and Huobi established their European operations from Gibraltar; Damex has a physical presence and countless billboards around the city and Tap.Global has offices on the main street. The government is certainly crypto friendly. MP for Digital and Financial Services Albert Isola told Cointelegraph that he is a HODLer:
Wait…how much $BTC does the Minister of Digital and Financial Services of Gibraltar hold? @JoeNakamoto sat down to discuss crypto adoption, regulation, and views on Bitcoin in Gibraltar. pic.twitter.com/NKxdeNKbvn
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) August 2, 2022
Wait… how much $BTC does the Gibraltar Minister for Digital and Financial Services have? @JoeNakamoto sat down to discuss cryptocurrency adoption, regulation and views on Bitcoin in Gibraltar.
Joey Garcia, head of public affairs at Xapo Bank, a fully regulated bank based in Gibraltar, told Cointelegraph that Gibraltar is “agile” and ideal territory to adopt new technologies:
“Small jurisdictions can move faster. We’ve seen it time and time again [en Gibraltar], be it crowdfunding or new areas of development. Xapo, for example, obtained its e-money license in Gibraltar in 2017.”
Banco Xapo CEO Wence Casares is known as “patient zero” in the Bitcoin (BTC) world. The Argentine businessman would have advocated for Bitcoin among the technology executives of Silicon Valley. Quartz reported that Casares tried to enlighten Bill Gates, while Bloomberg reported that Xapo held more than $10 billion worth of Bitcoin in its vaults.
The Xapo Vaults are now located in Grand Casemates Square, Gibraltar’s tourist hotspot. Millions of cruise ship excursionists stroll in front of the historic walls that form the Xapo walls. Anouska Streets told Cointelegraph that “There is a tension and juxtaposition between the old banking work and the new crypto landscape; be that bridge between the old and the new.” Commenting on Gibraltar as a jurisdiction, he explained:
“As a jurisdiction, it’s amazing: the regulators are open and helpful in terms of how to develop, not just Bitcoin but other crypto capabilities. It is what it represents: for years.”
Regarding regulation, Minister Isola also intervened. He explained that “regulation has to be an enabler, a business, not an impediment. So, in my opinion, pragmatic and practical regulation helps business.”
In fact, businesses have started running on Bitcoin. Major retail chains such as Costa Coffee already accept Bitcoin in Gibraltar. Neil Walker, CEO of Sandpiper GI – the group that manages retail franchises – told Cointelegraph that Bitcoin and, in particular, the Lightning Network can do things “more cleanly”.
“In today’s world, people should be able to move quickly and easily between currencies with almost zero fees and the lightning network could enable this, be it the potential cross-border workers in Gibraltar or visitors who come to Gibraltar to spend their money. And in our stores.
Obi Nwosu, the CEO of Fedi and a board member of BTrust, the initiative founded by Jack Dorsey and Jay Z, commented that Gibraltar has always moved quickly.
“I am not surprised that people on the ground are testing Bitcoin; that merchants on the ground are more interested in accepting Bitcoin.”
Molly Spiers, head of marketing at CoinCorner, explained that Bitcoin adoption in the British Overseas Territories is soaring. “Gibraltar is hot on the heels of the Isle of Man. There are currently seven shops in Gibraltar that accept Bitcoin – including big names like Costa Coffee, Hotel Chocolat and Card Factory – and we have another 20 potentially interested.”
As for Minister Isola, when asked if Gibraltar should emulate some of the success of the Isle of Man with adopting Bitcoin, he explained: “I have always said that if someone has an element in their legislation that is better than ours, I wouldn’t hesitate to adopt it. At the end of the day, we’re looking for the most effective, enabling and innovative regulatory framework we can find.”
As a result, not only can cryptocurrency traders meet, network, and rub shoulders with regulators on the small piece of land, but the territory responds quickly to market movements.
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