Societe Generale’s subsidiary becomes the first in France to receive a DASP licence

The Societe Generale group, via its subsidiary Forge, has obtained a licence for a digital assets service provider (DASP) from the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF).

The licence allows the firm to act as broker, provide custody services, trade, and buy and sell cryptocurrencies as a legal means of payment.

The press release said that regulator approval would help meet institutional demand. It is also an important step in the context of launched in April 2023 by the organization behind a regulated euro-backed Ethereum-based stablecoin.

To date, 87 organisations have registered with the AMF, including branches of well-known industry players such as Binance, Bitstamp, Luno and Bitpanda. Forge has become the first to receive the licence.

“Firms must meet certain requirements with respect to organisation, financial resources and conduct of business,” the AMF said.

In March 2023, the French authorities adopted a number of new rules for licensing and registering cryptocurrency firms. The amendments turned out to be softer than those previously proposed.

In April, the AMF began an accelerated review of applications from supervised crypto firms to comply with the MiCA framework rules across Europe.

In March, the co-issuer of USDC, Circle, filed an application with the AMF for DASP status, and in May — OKX exchange did so.