Faisal KhanAnswered Mar 5, 2014Coinbase is a retailer so to speak for Bitcoins. They allow you to accept payments in Bitcoins and convert them immediately to the base currency. Its not a trading exchange per se.
Kraken, is an exchange, where you can Buy/Sell Bitcoins against other currency pairs. Though San Francisco-based, it publishes its trade in the London time zone, so I am guessing (could be wrong) that they are running the exchange outside the US.
Both (to the best of my knowledge) would constitute as a Money Transmitter though neither has the license. Kraken may have a grey area, but Coinbase clearly has a need to own 50 licenses, and they do. People close to Coinbase cite:
Kraken, is an exchange, where you can Buy/Sell Bitcoins against other currency pairs. Though San Francisco-based, it publishes its trade in the London time zone, so I am guessing (could be wrong) that they are running the exchange outside the US.
Both (to the best of my knowledge) would constitute as a Money Transmitter though neither has the license. Kraken may have a grey area, but Coinbase clearly has a need to own 50 licenses, and they do. People close to Coinbase cite:
...they don't feel they need a MTL (money transmitter license), they claim they are exempt and they openly stated that if the regulators came after them they would have made enough money to pay the bill