After adding the EUR/BTC pair and making it possible to buy bitcoin with credit cards all over Europe, the recently registered bitcoin exchange Bitstamp adds the EUR/USD pair.

Starting from today, the customers of Bitstamp can trade euros for US dollars and vice versa. According to the company’s announcement, “the new trading pair allows for better mobility of funds and new arbitrage opportunities.”

The new improvement closely follows the previous one. On 29 May, Bitstamp informed its customers that bitcoin purchase with credit cards was now available in all 28 countries of the European Union:

“You can use our instant buy with Visa and Mastercard credit and debit card option and acquire bitcoins in seconds. After verifying your credit card you can instantly buy up to $1000 worth of bitcoins per day.”

Bitstamp was able to implement all these developments after becoming the first licenced bitcoin exchange in Europe. In April, it mаnaged to obtain the Payment Institution licence from the Luxembourg Financial Industry Supervisory Commission. As soon as 26 April, the company launched BTC/EUR trade in addition to the BTC/USD pair.

The Luxembourg licence makes it possible for the exchange to operate throughout all EU jurisdictions thanks to the “single passport”, which allows financial organisations from a member country to work in other member countries without additional licencing.

Initially founded in Slovenia, Bitstamp currently has its head office in the UK with two branches in the US and Luxembourg. It is now one of the largest bitcoin exchanges in the world.

The company announced it plans to add “more fiat-to-fiat and virtual currency-to-fiat trading pairs” in coming months in order to satisfy customer demands.

In April, another major bitcoin and blockchain company, Circle, was granted an electronic money licence from the British Financial Conduct Authority allowing it to introduce bitcoin-fuelled transfers between dollars and British pounds.

Alexey Tereshchenko