The National Bank of Romania has approved layer 1 blockchain architecture Elrond to acquire a payment processing platform Twispay. This will bring Elrond in the position to issue electronic money with the country’s central bank’s approval.
In Brief:
- Elrond announced that the central bank approved the acquisition of a payment processing firm.
- The acquirer comes into the position to offer stablecoins to the public in the EU or trade on a crypto exchange.
Elrond had announced plans to acquire an e-money service Twinspay in October 2021. This acquisition results in the right of Elrond to issue electronic money (e-money) under the European framework, as explained in the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2).
Not just that, the EU Commission’s proposed regulation in Crypto-assets states that licensed e-money institutions will be able to issue stablecoins that can be offered to the public in the European Union or traded on a crypto-asset trading exchange.
The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but the blockchain’s CEO, Beniamin Mincu, described it as a “landmark decision” by a European central bank.
“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,” he said.
For Elrond, it means delivering a sustainable infrastructure for an entirely new payment system – faster, cheaper, transparent, and open to people worldwide. Use cases that will be explored – under the regulatory framework – may include crypto debit cards, DeFi, NFT, and other Web3 technologies that will increase trust and efficiency.
Elrond, a blockchain company focused on distributed applications, can process up to 10,000 transactions per second (TPS), with a 5-second latency and a negligible cost.
Twispay provides an international payment solution that accepts a variety of fiat currencies and payment methods. The company is a significant member of Visa and Mastercard, which means it participates directly in card issuance and is permitted to acquire merchants.
The company is also authorized by the National Bank of Romania to provide payment services and issue electronic money, and it can operate throughout the European Economic Area (European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway).
Recently, cryptocurrency derivatives exchange FTX indicated that it will provide a range of cryptocurrency products and digital asset offerings across the European Economic Area targeting Europe and Middle Eastern markets after seeking approval from financial regulators in Cyprus – CySEC.
