OKX exchange has received approval for a license under Europe’s MiCA law

The company intends to obtain authorization to operate in the EU through a unit in Malta

23.01.2025 - 15:55

3 min

What’s new? OKX, the leading centralized crypto exchange (CEX) has received preliminary approval from the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) to operate under the new Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation. This means that the exchange is now eligible for a license under this EU-wide regulatory regime.

Material by Cointelegraph

What else is known? OKX intends to obtain a full license through its hub in Malta and begin offering a wide range of services and token pairs to more than 400 million users in Europe. OKX will open trading in 240 MiCA-compliant assets, but it did not specify which cryptocurrencies it is referring to.

In addition to spot trading, OKX will launch over-the-counter (OTC) and bot trading with 260 euro trading pairs.

The exchange launched a branch in Malta in July 2024 to operate under MiCA, which came into full force on December 30. At the time, company officials also said they planned to offer staking to EU residents.

In a new statement, the exchange declined to comment on the possible delisting of Tether’s USDT, the largest stablecoin, due to its non-compliance with local laws. The asset was previously delisted for European customers by leading US CEX Coinbase. It also allowed the asset to be delisted in the United States if it did not comply with the new requirements.

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Earlier, Gemini Exchange also chose Malta as the hub for its MiCA license. The company already holds a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) license from the MFSA.

On January 17, the Crypto.com exchange also announced its intention to obtain a MiCA license, but it did not specify which country it chose for this purpose.

Since MiCA came into full force, several crypto firms have already received licenses. One of the first was the payment platform MoonPay, which received authorization from the Dutch Financial Markets Authority (AFM) on December 30.

Boerse Stuttgart, a leading exchange group in Europe, became the first crypto service provider in Germany to receive a full MiCA license on January 17.

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