OKX has applied for a license as a Digital Asset Service Provider to join the list of other companies that have had their applications approved.
With plans to hire about 100 employees there over the next three years, the cryptocurrency exchange OKX wants to join the 74 other companies that have already received regulatory permission from the Financial Markets Authority (AMF). OKX is considering France as a regional hub in Europe.
The company with its headquarters in the Seychelles filed an application to register as a Digital Asset Service Provider (DASP). It intends to build a “substantial” physical presence there, according to Tim Byun, the company’s head of global government relations.
It’s not the only cryptocurrency exchange trying to establish a presence in the second-largest economy in the EU. Following its DASP registration, France last year became Binance’s preferred location for its European Union (EU) hub.
According to founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world had hired about 150 individuals for its Paris branch by September.
In an interview, Byun stated, “We would aim to hire 100 full-time employees within three years.” “I think we anticipated [hiring] about 30 colleagues in the first year.”
According to Byun, the registration procedure might take up to six months.
Obtaining registration requires verifying that businesses adhere to anti-money laundering guidelines and have respectable management. It should now be simpler for cryptocurrency companies that have received approval in one nation to operate across the entire bloc after the EU’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) law was unanimously passed by the 27 member states earlier this month.
Last month, the AMF suggested that already-registered businesses in France be given priority for MiCA license, which has stricter guidelines for governance, consumer protection, and financial stability.