The duty to register only applies to parties offering services for the exchange between virtual and regular currencies or offering custodian wallets for virtual currencies in or from the Netherlands in a professional capacity or on a commercial basis. The law makes no distinction between new players and existing licensed financial institutions. Even if a party already holds a licence from DNB or the AFM, for example under the Financial Supervision Act (Wet op het financieel toezicht – Wft), it is still required to register as a crypto service provider.
Providers of crypto services who were already active as a crypto service provider before 21 May 2020 and have requested registration before that date may continue to carry out their activities during the registration process. This transitional regime will apply until 21 November 2020. As of that date, therefore, the register will contain the full list of crypto service providers permitted to operate in or from the Netherlands. For each crypto service provider, the register states the date from which it is permitted to carry out its activities, and the activities involved, as well as its name and address, the Member State in which it has its registered office and its Chamber of Commerce trade register number.
DNB exclusively monitors registered crypto service providers compliance with the Wwft and the Sw. Crypto service providers are not subject to prudential supervision by DNB or conduct supervision by the AFM. This means that financial operational risks are not monitored and there is no specific financial consumer protection.
