Cryptocurrency Exchange Office ECD Gets License for Trading Digital Property – “Cryptocurrencies Deserve to Be Available to Everybody”

The cryptocurrency exchange office ECD, whose company name is MCM 965 d.o.o. from Belgrade, is one of the two companies which have gotten the license for trading cryptocurrencies. As Marko Matanovic, the COO of ECD, says for eKapija, the requirements needed to be met, which are primarily defined by the Law on Digital Property and which “put the company to a maturity test”.

– Meeting the set criteria proves the credibility and the seriousness of the legal entity. A range of procedures need to be created and submitted, a proposal of an adequate organization scheme needs to be set up, adequate roles within the team need to be defined and people with relevant knowledge from various fields (i.e. Compliance, Risk, Auditing, I&T) need to be employed. Protocols of risk management and control of all internal processes are important. We could go on. It is an extremely complex task. The fact that the case analysis took over a year points to its complexity. The result is that we now know for sure in practice what needs to be done in order to obtain the permit – the interviewee says.

ECD has existed since 2012 and enables the purchase and sale of digital property (cryptocurrencies), their exchange, consultations and education. All the services which the new permit enables they have provided before.

– The Law on Digital Property was adopted on December 2020 and came into effect in June 2021. All the legal entities which had provided services related to digital property before June 2021, if they submitted a request for applying for a permit by that date, were able to continue operating during the procedure of the processing of the request. Considering that the permit has been issued, we are merely continuing doing what we’ve done before. The purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies for dinars remains available for both natural and legal persons. There’s also the possibility of keeping cryptocurrencies in the ECD Wallet – Matanovic clarifies.

He adds that they are still waiting for a permit from the Securities Commission, as the other state subject that regulates this field:

– We are optimistic that this process as well will be successfully realized.
Cryptocurrency ATMs have been installed in Belgrade and Novi Sad. How do they function and who can use them? Are other locations planned as well?

– You need to have a registered and verified account on ECD.rs. After that, you can physically go to a cryptocurrency ATM with two options for transactions. The purchase option entails putting dinars into the machine. Most often, the users have one of the apps of their phones which enable the keeping or the reception of cryptocurrencies. By scanning the QR code from the phone through a cryptocurrency ATM, the machine gets the information about the address to which to send the cryptocurrencies. The entire process is over in two minutes. The sale, on the other hand, entails sending cryptocurrencies to the cryptocurrency ATM, also most often through a phone. The destination address is scanned, which appears as a QR code on the screen of the cryptocurrency ATM. After about ten minutes, a confirmation is sent to the user’s phone in the form of a text, informing them that they can withdraw the dinars. We are constantly considering the options for expanding the network of cryptocurrency ATMs – says Matanovic.
When asked about the importance of this piece of news for our market, he says that the industry and the field have been recognized.

– These two permits indicate that the NBS and the state have estimated that those two subjects are harmonized with the legal criteria. In our 10 years of existence, we have certainly built credibility and trust among our users. This is an additional confirmation for the existing users and also for those who were simply more conservative – Matanovic believes.

MCM 965 has been operating for 10 years now and, as our interviewee points out, one of the biggest successes is that they have persevered for a whole decade. He says that the crypto scene has changed dramatically and that it keeps changing – locally and globally.

– Being successful in various phases, good and bad, different periods, adapting, is what makes us pretty rare and proud. Another thing, we have remained consistent with our vision and mission of cryptocurrencies deserving to be available to everybody. We are continuing on. The third thing is that we have helped create a sufficient interest in the local market. We have thereby also attracted an interest from the regulators to potentially start the entire process earlier compared to the option of the non-existence of ECD all these years. We are proud that we believe that we have inspired another legal entity to see an opportunity in this field there. We believe that this will additionally help an even quicker development of this field – Matanovic believes.

Observing the events on the daily level, the interviewee of eKapija estimates the development of the cryptocurrency market in Serbia as difficult, slow and challenging.

– When we look back, time has flown by and both extremely positive and extremely negative changes have happened. A development trend is absolutely present. That’s kind of the way we see the future. Plenty of challenges, interesting situations. And more than ever, we believe in a positive trend. We expect the industry to keep developing very fast and the technology and its potential applications to progress further. The number of people, companies, states which put cryptocurrencies and blockchain into the sphere of their interest is increasing. In a word: optimistic – says Marko Matanovic and adds that “it’s always a good time for Bitcoin”.

Aleksandra Kekic

MCM 965 doo Beograd

Komisija za hartije od vrednosti Republike Srbije Beograd

Narodna banka Srbije Beograd

MCM 965 doo Beograd

cryptocurrency exchange office ECD

ECD

Securities Commission

NBS

National Bank of Serbia

Marko Matanović

license for trading cryptocurrencies

Law on Digital Property

digital property

cryptocurrencies

ECD Wallet

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blockchain

Bitcoin