At the height of the unprecedented crypto boom of 2017, Estonia emerged as the digital trailblazer of the European Union, issuing hundreds of licenses to crypto companies. The country’s regulators moved to authorize the issuance of operating permits to crypto companies back in 2017 under Estonia’s e-Residency permit program.
The e-Residency program is a government-issued digital identity and status that allows entrepreneurs, freelancers and digital nomads to run and manage paperless companies while living or traveling abroad. The lax rules at the time even enabled companies with no physical presence in the Baltic state to receive licenses.