Student Lender SoFI Gets NY BitLicense, Clearing Way to Offer Crypto Trading

Student loan services provider SoFi has secured a New York virtual currency license, the state’s financial regulator announced Tuesday.

The New York Department of Financial Services said in a press release that it approved SoFi Digital Assets, a wholly owned subsidiary of SoFi, granting it a money transmission license as well as the virtual currency license, colloquially termed the BitLicense. SoFi Digital Assets is the 24th company to receive a cryptocurrency approval through NYDFS.

Under the licenses, the company will be able to provide buy and sell services for bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum, ethereum classic, litecoin and Stellar lumens to New York residents. 

In a statement, SoFi CEO Anthony Noto said the company was “thrilled” to offer crypto trading services, “in addition to active and automated investing, as part of SoFi Invest in New York State,” on top of its other products. 

“Putting our members’ interests first is our top priority at SoFi,” he said. “That includes both offering individuals the products they want, like cryptocurrency within SoFi Invest, as well as protecting them, through a solid regulatory framework like that created by the New York State Department of Financial Services.”

SoFi first indicated it would begin providing cryptocurrency services to customers earlier this year, when it announced it was partnering with Coinbase. At the time, the company did not indicate which cryptocurrencies would be available on its platform. The company began offering crypto trading services in September through its SoFi Invest platform, according to Cheddar. At the time, users were limited to bitcoin, litecoin and ether.