Dutch Court Rules Bitonic No Longer Requires Crypto Wallet Verification

A Dutch court has ruled in favor of Bitonic, a crypto exchange led by Daan Kleiman, stating it no longer needs to fulfill crypto wallet-verification requirements implemented by the De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), the central bank of the Netherlands.

• In an announcement Thursday, Bitonic said it had received a decision from the court regarding a case against the DNB about the objection made in regard to crypto wallet-verification requirements.
• DNB told crypto companies via a webinar on Sept. 21 about an additional technical requirement for verifying crypto addresses under the Sanctions Act. No registration would be made if the strict DNB requirement was not met.
• Bitonic, which also heads the crypto lobbying group VBNL, took the case to court earlier this year and said Dutch regulators have formally acknowledged its view that the requirement was “unlawful” and should never have been made during registration.
• The Rotterdam District Court has ruled in favor of Bitonic in a case against the DNB. The court acknowledged Bitonic's objections and doubts about the registration procedure and the legality of the wallet-verification requirement set up by the central bank.
• The judge acknowledged that the wallet-verification requirement was part of the registration process and that Bitonic had every right to object to it, the exchange said.
• “DNB admits that Bitonic was right. It is the outcome of an order by the court that the Dutch supervisor should motivate its registration decision better. In essence, DNB chose to revoke the requirement as laid out in the registration decision,” Bitonic said.
• DNB has now revoked the registration requirement and said it will remove the wallet-verification measures as soon as possible.
• “We will no longer ask for all transactions and ask [for] a copy of your wallet screenshot. We will further investigate which other simplifications are possible,” Bitonic said.