Starting out with a wallet, a cold-storage custody vault and a reserve of 30,000 bitcoin (BTC) back in 2013, Xapo later set up in Gibraltar under its virtual asset service provider (VASP) framework. Since beginning the process in 2019, Xapo has been granted a banking license, obtained principal membership with Visa and Mastercard as well as membership in SWIFT (the global system through which banks send money to each other). This means the firm can engage directly with correspondent banks, not via payment companies or third parties, and have access to money market accounts.
