Another Crypto Giant Moves to Malta

The Hong Kong headquartered cryptocurrency exchange OKEx, second largest by 24 hour trading volume, has announced today that they will be expanding to Malta.

“We are confident in the Malta government’s approach and decided to make Malta a foundation for further OKEx growth,” says the official announcement. The company, currently second only to Binance, added that they had met with government officials and regulators “to understand their legislative and regulatory plans, and provided written feedback and engaged in open dialogue,” after which they decided that the expansion was in their best interest.

Chris Lee, CEO of OKEx, said in the announcement: “We look forward to working with the Malta government as it is forward thinking and shares many of our same values: the most important of which are protection of traders and the general public, compliance with Anti Money Laundering and Know Your Customer standards, and recognition of the innovation and importance of continued development in the Blockchain ecosystem.”

Malta is building a name for themselves as one of the friendliest countries for crypto and fintech. Policy makers in the country have been looking for ways to promote the nation as a leader in the digital assets field. The Malta Digital Innovation Authority, announced earlier this year, aims to provide legal certainty for the use of blockchain technology.

The only crypto exchange bigger than OKEx by 24 hour volume, Binance, has also recently announced their plan to move to Malta, “due to the country’s progressive view on crypto,” and OKEx joining them on the European island nation seems a bright step forward for the country and its place in the industry.