The approval of the license which goes into effect on July 1, where it was granted in Luxembourg, was announced on Monday.

Thanks to the approval in Luxembourg, Bitstamp will subsequently become nationally licensed under the EU's "passport" program. The program allows financial services providers legally established in one member state to be recognized and operate in all others.

"This is an industry first," Bitstamp cofounder and chief executive Nejc Kodric told Forbes. "We are entering a new era where [being a licensed exchange] is becoming an industry standard."

Bitstamp is currently the third largest bitcoin exchange, but is likely to grow with this announcement. The exchange is also launching euro-Bitcoin trading, which they did not previously offer.

"We believe that this is stability-inducing — that people will see this as a sign of Bitcoin going mainstream," said Kodric. "It also allows us to be taken seriously and partner up with more serious institutions, because we had a lot of discussions in the past but it always comes to a point where there's no one overseeing us, and bigger financial institutions are still reluctant to work with unlicensed companies doing [financial technology]."