Luxembourg-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp has recently received the 19th BitLicense from New York’s Department of Financial Services (DFS) for its wholly owned subsidiary Bitstamp USA nearly 3 years since its application. One of the first batch of 22 companies to have tried for the license, it now seeks to branch out its operations in the US.

“This year we are the [fifth] that was granted so I guess the pace is picking up,” remarked Bitstamp CEO Nejc Kodrič.

Bitstamp was first founded in 2011, and was seen as being the European counterpart to Japan-based Mt Gox, which was the dominant exchange player at the time. It already holds a payment institution license in the EU, allowing it to operate across all of the regional grouping’s 28 member countries.

Its subsidiary Bitstamp USA is now licensed to offer services to customers for buying and selling between select virtual currencies and fiat USD. It is also authorized to facilitate transfers of funds onto the Ripple Network, issuing Ripple Balances in USD, other virtual currencies, and select fiat currencies including the Australian Dollar (AUD), British Pound (GBP), Euro (EUR), Swiss Franc (CHF), and Japanese Yen (JPY).

“The [BitLicense] is not that much different than our financial services license that we have in Europe,” Kodrič said. “We didn’t reinvent the wheel.”

Other than Bitcoin (BTC), the other cryptocurrencies that Bitstamp USA is allowed to offer are Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ether (ETH), and Ripple (XRP) in the US. While just five cryptos may seem restrictive for now, Kodrič hinted that this is not a fixed limit.