Carey Olsen advises Mountain Protocol on obtaining Bermuda digital asset business licence
Carey Olsen's corporate team in Bermuda has successfully advised digital asset business Mountain Protocol on obtaining a digital asset business licence to conduct the business of issuing, selling, or redeeming virtual coins, tokens, or any other form of digital asset and providing custodial wallet services.
This is the first time a licence has been issued to a business operating with an ERC20 rebasing token, a technical standard and form of digital asset issued on the Ethereum blockchain.
Mountain Protocol provides its users with a platform to purchase and redeem USDM (an ERC20 rebasing token designed to maintain a value match with the underlying fiat currency). Mountain Protocol now features on the Bermuda Monetary Authority's (BMA) online list of regulated entities.
Partners Steven Rees Davies and Matthew Grigg advised on the license application, with the assistance of counsel Charissa Ball and associate Michelle Meyer.
Steven Rees Davies commented: "We are pleased to have supported Mountain Protocol on obtaining their digital asset business licence. The business model is innovative in the way it achieves product and service objectives and is an excellent example of a real use case for blockchain technology. It has been particularly exciting working on a project involving a rebasing ERC20 token at its core, which is a market first for a Bermuda licenced company. We look forward to seeing the growth of Mountain Protocol following its successful acquisition of this licence.
Founder of Mountain Protocol, Martin Carrica, said: "It is refreshing to work with regulators like the BMA, who understand blockchain technologies and can have substantive discussions about where things can be done differently with blockchain.
The Carey Olsen team combines experience from working in traditional financial markets with digital asset experience, allowing us to create solutions that provide better products, as well as much-needed regulatory certainty to users. Projects aiming to provide safety and regulatory certainty should seriously consider Bermuda as a jurisdiction, and Carey Olsen as their council."
Carey Olsen Bermuda Limited is a company limited by shares incorporated in Bermuda and approved and recognised under the Bermuda Bar (Professional Companies) Rules 2009. The use of the title “Partner” is merely to denote seniority. Services are provided on the basis of our current terms of business, which can be viewed at: www.careyolsen.com/terms-business.
