NYDIG-Owned Payments Startup Bottlepay Obtains FCA Registration

The startup says it’s the first Lightning network-based firm to win approval from the U.K. regulator.

By Jamie Crawley

Jan 11, 2022 at 9:12 a.m. UTC

Updated Jan 11, 2022 at 3:35 p.m. UTC

Jamie Crawley

Jamie Crawley is a CoinDesk news reporter based in London.

Follow @JamieCrawleyCD on Twitter

Payments startup Bottlepay said it has been approved by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to carry out crypto-asset activities in the U.K., making it the first Lightning Network-based firm to win permission from the country’s financial regulator.

Bottlepay, which is owned by bitcoin investment company NYDIG, allows users to make micropayments using messages on Twitter, Reddit and Discord on the Lightning network, a layer on top of the Bitcoin blockchain that enables transactions to be carried out more quickly.
FCA registration demonstrates that a firm has met the watchdog’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing regulations. The FCA became the overseer for such matters in the U.K. in January 2021, requiring all crypto-asset firms to register in order to continue to operate.
Bottlepay is based in Newcastle in northeast England and was purchased by New York-based NYDIG for around $300 million in stock last October. It is available in the U.K. and across Europe.

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