National Bank of Romania Grants Green Signal to a Blockchain Acquisition

Key Insights:

• Elrond blockchain network has acquired the Romanian payments platform Twispay.
• National Bank of Romania has granted Elrond clearance to get an e-money license.
• Regulated e-money institutions would be authorized to create stablecoins.

The Romanian central bank approved the Enterprise-oriented blockchain platform Elrond to buy Twispay, a regulated e-money platform.

Per a release on Thursday, Elrond has secured an e-money license as a part of the deal. This means that the blockchain firm could issue regulated stablecoins such as Tether in the European Economic Area in the future.

Twispay is a key member of Visa and Mastercard and a regulated e-money issuer. E-money is a store of value, as opposed to fiat, and is used to make it easier for users to transact electronically.

According to data from Statista, over 6.1 billion e-money transactions took place in the EU in 2020 alone.

Acquisition Objectives

With the new acquisition, Elrond aims to:

• Enhance Twispay’s payment infrastructure with blockchain technology to boost settlement transparency, reduce time and improve transaction reliability.
• Issue regulated stablecoins, crypto debit cards, explore benefits of decentralized finance (DeFi), and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
• Conduct e-money services across the European Union Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway under EU passport laws.

The central bank of Romania has made a ‘landmark’ decision by approving the blockchain acquisition, said the CEO of Elrond, Beniamin Mincu.

“This landmark decision from the Romanian Central Bank opens the door for EU citizens, and soon for everyone everywhere, to significantly benefit from value flowing with near-instant settlement times, at 100x fewer costs, with full transparency, and higher reliability.”

Elrond, in January, bought Utrust, a Web3 payments platform, to improve existing Web3 payments solutions and launched Merchant Yield products. 

Additionally, the acquisition arrives when the EU Parliament is trimming the energy-consuming Proof of Work blockchain networks as they threaten climate change.

Elrond’s native token EGLD remains unshaken by the news of the Twispay acquisition. The token was trading at $141.68, down 2.19% for the day, with a $3.31 billion market valuation at press time.

Crypto Moves in Romania

Romania has been updating its regulations for the crypto assets and blockchain industry.

According to authorities from the Ministry of Finance, subsequent crypto regulatory actions to be taken at the national level will largely depend on the outcome of the ongoing discussions within the European Union.

Romania’s Ministry of Finance is aware of the relevance of crypto assets for the country’s tax system. The government also finds it is necessary to update the country’s tax regime.