According to the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), from 2015 to May 2018, the agency responded to only 9 out of 36 applications for a BitLicense license.
The author of the Fortune edition , Robert Hackett, was interested in this question after Eric Voorhees called the New York state's approach to the regulation of cryptocurrency “a complete failure”, since by that time, only 4 companies received approval. Hackett tried to find out if this figure is correct, and if so, how many applications for BitLicense the agency is now considering.
Since the beginning of May 2018, when Voorhees expressed these words at the Consensus conference, another 6 applications for BitLicense were approved. ShapeShift, whose CEO is Voorhees, and several other firms have decided to lose their right to do business in the state of New York instead of submitting a new request for permission. It is noteworthy that, together with ShapeShift, the Kraken exchange, which had previously made very bold statements regarding the New York authorities ’approach to cryptocurrency regulation, acted in a similar way.
The state of New York is one of the most populated in the United States and the birthplace of Wall Street, the country's financial center, but BitLicense seems to have had a significant slowing effect on its blockchain industry. Compliance with the conditions for obtaining it seemed to be excessive for many crypto companies, because, in addition to this, they have to deal with many other problems, such as the need to do something in terms of changes in cryptocurrency rates and complicated taxation.
According to Hacket, if the current BitLicense issue rate continues, in 2019, NYDFS will issue a license to another 12 Bitcoin companies. During this time, a new stage of ups and downs may occur in the crypto industry.
Little is known about why the application process remains so slow. The initiative's organizer, Ben Lowski, has since left the department and joined Ripple .
While the firm is waiting for approval of its application for BitLicense, its business model can be fully realized in other US states. As a result, New York cannot be considered as a favorable place for conducting a crypto-business, which is clearly demonstrated by the statements of Eric Voorhees and Kraken Jesse Powell of the Kraken exchange.
