Media: OKX plans to move its EU hub from France to Malta

According to the source, the reason was more lenient regulation

12.07.2024 - 08:40

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What’s new? One of the largest centralized exchanges (CEX) OKX has chosen Malta to host an office in the European Union, as required by the new Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, which has begun to be phased in across the bloc. OKX had originally planned to choose France as its EU hub, but according to CoinDesk’s source, the exchange felt that Malta had more lenient regulation.

Material by CoinDesk

What else is known? OKX has already started looking for candidates for a number of key positions in the Malta office, including head of compliance, operations lead, and head of internal audit.

Meanwhile, OKX’s France unit received registration from local financial regulator AMF back in December last year. Under MiCA, crypto firms must obtain a Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP) license in one of the EU countries, allowing them to operate across the bloc. To do so, companies must be physically present in the country receiving the license and already have a registration in place.

At the end of 2023, the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) updated its rules for crypto companies to bring them in line with MiCA. And earlier this year, OKX agreed to pay 304 000 EUR to the MFSA for identified regulatory violations.

In May, OKX launched a crypto exchange in Australia where spot trading is available to all local users and derivatives trading is available to verified wholesale customers.

In May, the platform strengthened account protection after a user was hacked for $2 million using a deepfake.

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