Interpol and several other agencies provided information to Bermuda’s authorities about Arbitrade, a cryptocurrency exchange and coin company, MPs heard yesterday.

David Burt, the Premier, provided a personal explanation to the House of Assembly to clarify a statement he made earlier.

Mr Burt told MPs in response to a query about Arbitrade during Premier’s Question Time last Friday, he indicated that “enhanced due diligence” was carried out by accessing the international Interpol system.

The Premier said: “The information systems used by Bermuda’s Financial Intelligence Agency, to facilitate enhanced due diligence requests, contain information from multiple sources, not solely Interpol.

“although this is a minor distinction, I felt that it was important to clarify for the record.”

It was revealed this month that Arbitrade was granted permission from the Government as it acquired Victoria Hall, an office block on Victoria Street, for its global headquarters.

The company earlier said it intended to back each of its three billion “dignity” tokens with $1 worth of gold, after the firm stated it had “title” to 390,000 kilograms of gold bullion.

Mr Burt noted yesterday that Arbitrade had attracted much attention in the House, as well as in various forms of media.

He added: “Some of this commentary has erroneously conflated the Government’s approval of a licence for this company to purchase property with due diligence done on any digital asset issued by Arbitrade prior to incorporation in Bermuda, specifically the dignity token.

“I wish to make it clear to this honourable House that the Government of Bermuda has not examined, scrutinised or approved any digital asset instituted by Arbitrade and to date no application has been received under the initial coin offering Act for the issuance of a digital asset.”

Mr Burt added that the Bermuda Monetary Authority had not issued a licence for Arbitrade to conduct a digital asset business.

He said: “The approval for a company to purchase property is wholly unrelated to Bermuda’s digital asset regime and it would not be correct to state that one will affect the other or to imply that somehow that approval to purchase property is a sign that other approvals are imminent.”