"Peer-to-peer payments platform Metal Pay has earned a money transmitter license from the US state of Washington."

Metal Pay called the licensing win a “big moment” in a blog post announcing its success. It explained that “the specific regulatory challenges at play in the state of Washington” had made it impossible for the platform to operate there. The platform aims to simplify sending and receiving money, and offers free and instant transactions on Bitcoin, MTL, and XPR.

MTL, which had been trading at around the $2 mark, rose sharply after the news, reaching over $7, and is currently trading at around $6.9.

“There’s never been a higher watermark than a federally chartered bank,” Anchorage cofounder and president Diogo Monica told Decrypt at the time.