ASTRA Protocol teams up with Squire Patton Boggs as crypto compliance goes institutional
Astra Protocol, which aims to provide the DeFi industry with a compliance layer while tapping into the future growth of the nascent sector, is teaming up with Squire Patton Boggs as the company is embarking on a multi-pronged push to boost compliance procedures across its platform.
Squire Patton Boggs, one of the world’s top 30 law firms by total headcount and revenue, has 45 offices in 20 countries that serve a diverse base of legal clients. Their recent alliance with Astra aims to support the latter’s mission to provide a fully decentralized platform that carries out the necessary compliance checks on behalf of various DeFi platforms.
Astra Protocol is also expanding its cooperation with Squire Patton Boggs, which will be accepting ASTRA as its first DeFi payment method.
The decentralized finance ecosystem has grown exponentially in the past year, having reached a market cap of over $105 billion, according to the industry’s recent data.
While the sector is quite promising, because it can yield higher revenues while enabling greater financial inclusion, global regulators are conscious of lending, borrowing, and other critical services being carried out in the emerging space.
Astra Protocol’s purpose is to ensure that the decentralized finance ecosystem can stick to the rules set out by global regulators. The startup has been strengthening its ties with prominent legal service providers to provide customers with a legal layer that establishes confidence in their projects as a secure investment.
Furthermore, the ability to more easily comply with compliance standards could prove to be a cost-saving measure for both crypto firms and other players in the space.
The cross-border and stateless nature of cryptocurrencies throws up different challenges to regulators, even if they decide to devise formal guidelines to govern the asset class. As such, digital assets operators, including crypto exchanges, are increasingly turning to compliance solutions to help provide background checks on their transactions as they find themselves under increasing scrutiny from regulators over possible violations of securities and AML rules.
Joe Crowley, a Senior Policy Advisor at Squire Patton Boggs, comments: “ASTRA is the preeminent compliance protocol business within the DeFi industry that is able to give assurance to regulatory agencies as well as individual clients, which in turn will help boost confidence in DeFi’s legitimacy as a global industry”.
Sakhib Waseem, Chief Innovation Officer at ASTRA Protocol added: “We are extremely pleased with our partnership with Squire Patton Boggs and look forward to working with Congressman Crowley and his organisation. As we at the ASTRA Protocol define the next generation of decentralised global compliance structure across the DeFi industry, it is important to have key partners who understand the needs of both the crypto community and are in tune with the latest changes in the regulatory space”.
Waseem went on to explain that Astra Protocol sported a number of interesting features.
“Squire Patton Boggs have a great presence across the US and internationally, this partnership is another affirmation we have the latest understanding of regulatory enhancements around the world and can provide an industry leading standard to our customers and clients”, Sakhib concludes.
