NYDIG owned payment startup Bottlepay has been approved by the United Kingodm’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and can offer crypto-asset activities in the country. It is now the first Lightning network-based firm to be granted permission from the U.K regulator to operate.
The Bottleplay platform enables users to make micropayments using messages on Twitter, Reddit and Discord, all on Bitcoin’s Lightning network, the second layer technology on top of the Bitcoin blockchain that allows scaling and speeding up of transactions by making use of liquidity pools.
The FCA approval is needed to assure a financial services firm complies with the necessary anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing regulations. The FCA became the leading authority on such matters in the U.K. a year ago in January 2021. Since then, all crypto-asset businesses wishing to operate on the British Peninsula are required to register and receive approval.
Bottlepay is based in Newcastle and is available in the U.K. and Europe. NYDIG acquired the company in October of 2021 in an all- stock transaction worth $300 million.