Europe’s premier crypto payment institution, Januar, partners with the EU’s only native Travel Rule vendor to bridge the MiCA-PSD2 compliance gap.
The Vision
Januar is a crypto-native Payment Institution licensed by the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority. Holding both a Payment Institution license under PSD2 and a CASP license under MiCA, Januar is passported to operate across the European Economic Area and provides regulated financial infrastructure to digital asset businesses, including IBAN accounts, payments, wallets, custody, trading, and API-based workflows.
Through its sub-custodial model, Januar enables CASPs to process stablecoin flows using regulated infrastructure while preserving their direct customer relationships. The model gives CASPs access to payment, custody, and compliance capabilities without requiring every company to recreate the same regulated infrastructure from scratch.
The Challenge: Navigating the Transfer of Funds Regulation and Subcustodial Complexities
Stablecoins are on the rise. Traders use them for instant and low-cost conversions, people use them to remit payments, businesses use them to settle invoices, and AI agents do so to do whatever AI agents do. Stablecoin payments are tantamount to traditional ones, so they are regulated accordingly. A growing number of businesses – from crypto companies to brick and mortar ones – are therefore looking for compliant stablecoin service providers. Enter Januar.
As a dual-licensed payment service provider, Januar has spent years in building a compliant financial service. Headquartered in Denmark, this has required absorbing regulatory and technological complexities in a space that is under notable public scrutiny. Understanding, and ensuring compliance with, the alphabet soup comprising MiCA, GDPR, DORA, and TFR has been a character building opportunity like no other.
Subject to the Transfer of Funds Regulation (TFR), Januar found themselves in need of a scalable Travel Rule solution to maintain compliance. However, finding the right fit proved difficult due to several industry roadblocks:
- The “Fiat-First” Friction: Januar found that most existing Travel Rule solutions felt overpriced and notoriously difficult to implement, backed up by poor feedback from their industry peers.
- Building Reliable Travel Rule Data Flows: To support compliant deposit flows at scale, Januar needed a Travel Rule solution that could help manage incomplete incoming data, request missing information from originating VASPs, and support clear audit trails.
- Strict Vendor Requirements: Given Januar’s subcustodial model and the fact that Travel Rule is a Critical or Important Function under the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), the vendor for this role would have to strictly comply with DORA.
The Selection: Why Januar Chose CryptoSwift
CryptoSwift stood out from the competition for three main reasons:
- A Crypto-Native Approach: CryptoSwift presented itself as a reliable vendor that didn’t attempt to impose an outdated, fiat-inspired version of the Travel Rule onto modern cryptocurrency payments.
- Operational Ease: CryptoSwift’s pragmatic, well-documented, API-first product made it a clear winner. Januar recognized that this architecture would be highly reasonable to operationalize across their engineering, compliance, and customer support teams.
- European Alignment: As an EU-native company, CryptoSwift was perfectly positioned to not only help Januar comply with DORA but also to prioritize and rapidly respond to European regulatory changes like MiCAR and PSR/PSD3.
The Solution: Quick Implementation and Custom Workflows
Once selected, the deployment proved that CryptoSwift could deliver on its promises:
- Seamless Integration: Integrating with CryptoSwift’s cloud app was a remarkably smooth process – “as straightforward as it gets.”
- Data Completeness: To solve the missing deposit data issue and comply with TFR requirements, CryptoSwift quickly added a feature allowing Januar to request missing data directly from counterparty VASPs.
- Routing Support: Acknowledging Januar’s unique role in the European stablecoin transfers ecosystem, CryptoSwift quickly responded to support routing workflows, specifically catering to situations where Januar serves as an intermediary CASP.
The Result
By partnering with an EU-native, developer-friendly compliance platform like Cryptoswift, Januar successfully bridged the MiCA-PSD2 gap. Today, they continue to provide well-functioning and compliant stablecoin processing for CASPs across Europe.