Following approval from Cyprus’ financial regulator CySec, FTX Europe will begin serving users across the continent. Marketing materials also indicate that the exchange’s latest push will include the Middle East. "Further details on additional countries we can serve in the Middle East will be announced at a later date," a spokesperson for FTX told Decrypt.
This is the second affiliate of the original FTX crypto exchange. Its American affiliate, FTX US, was launched in May 2019.
“As we continue to grow, we are constantly looking at opportunities to become appropriately licensed and regulated in every market we enter. We’ll be interacting with regulators in various countries across Europe to continue to provide a safe and secure environment for people to trade crypto,” said Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and CEO of FTX, on the European expansion.
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FTX Europe will be led by Patrick Gruhn, who is also a partner at the Swiss legal firm Crypto Lawyers LLC, according to LinkedIn. Gruhn’s profile has yet to indicate his new role as the head of the European affiliate.
“Europeans will now be able to use FTX’s best-in-class trading platform to invest in a wide range of cryptocurrencies derivatives thru a regulated investment firm,” said Gruhn of today’s news.
FTX and Europe
This is not the first time the crypto exchange has made ground in Europe.
Back in 2020, the crypto exchange announced a partnership with CM-Equity AG, a German investment firm, to begin providing tokenized stock trading on the platform.
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3) FTX has partnered with CM-Equity AG to provide equities trading.
CM-Equity is a regulated German financial institution. It has licenses permitting it to offer these products to customers.
All FTX customers who trade equities have to become CM-Equity customers as well.
The Munich-based firm is a white label solution that provides KYC services, compliance standards, custody of the equities in question, among other solutions to the crypto exchange. The service is ongoing and includes popular equities like Apple, Tesla, Google, Facebook, and others.
Marketing materials indicate that alongside regulatory approval in Cyprus, FTXEurope is also able to provide its services thanks to a partnership with an undisclosed licensed investment firm "with passportable licenses across the European economic area."
An FTX spokesperson told Decrypt via email that the firm in question is K-DNA Financial Services Ltd., a Cyprus-based investment firm.
Editor's Note: This story was updated at 6 am EST on March 8 to include commentary from an FTX spokesperson.
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