Cryptocurrency exchange OKX has acquired a key European Union license that can allow the corporate to supply derivatives merchandise all through the area, doubtlessly opening the door to a extra superior section of the buying and selling group.
In a March 12 announcement, OKX’s Europe CEO, Erald Ghoos, confirmed that the exchange acquired a Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) license. The license will permit OKX to launch derivatives buying and selling merchandise for institutional traders throughout the EU.
Source: OKX
The announcement got here lower than two months after OKX secured a preauthorization below the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework, which permits the exchange to supply localized companies throughout 28 markets inside the European Economic Area.
Although the MiFID II and MiCA licensing regimes are seen as complementary, they serve completely different functions. MiFID II applies to all varieties of monetary devices and requires crypto derivatives platforms to register.
On the opposite hand, MiCA applies to crypto-asset service providers coping with cryptocurrencies that aren’t thought-about monetary devices.
Headquartered in Seychelles, OKX is among the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges based mostly on every day quantity. According to CoinMarketCap, the exchange processed almost $3.7 billion price of spot trades on March 12.
Related: Kraken secures MiFID license to offer derivatives in Europe
Growing demand for derivatives
Demand for cryptocurrency derivatives has been on the rise as extra institutional traders enter the digital asset area. A November report by CCData positioned the centralized crypto derivatives market at almost $7 trillion, having climbed 89.4% and surpassing the earlier peak in March of final 12 months.
Crypto derivatives volumes reached all-time highs in the fourth quarter of 2024. Source: CCData
A February 2024 report by EY predicted that the evolution of decentralized finance (DeFi) would proceed to catalyze crypto derivatives markets. The report stated:
“Despite the high-profile crypto agency bankruptcies in the 2022 crypto recession, which have led to elevated requires higher regulation of the crypto asset business, together with the derivatives-trading sector, it’s anticipated that the crypto derivatives market will proceed to develop and evolve with the launch of recent merchandise that handle market contributors’ funding and hedging wants.”
When Kraken secured its MiFID license final month, it cited Europe as “probably the most energetic areas for crypto derivatives buying and selling.”
Although not referencing solely derivatives buying and selling, CME Group referred to as Europe the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency economic system, accounting for almost 18% of worldwide transaction volumes.
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