The company, founded last year in Hong Kong, plans to open an office in Malta, said executive director Zhao Changpeng in an interview. Binance will soon initiate an "exchange between fiat and crypto" in the European island nation, and is close to reaching an agreement with local banks.
Regulators from China to the United States have been taking strong measures against cryptocurrency exchanges since last year, making it difficult for exchanges such as Binance to find a permanent base. The company had an office in Japan and was trying to obtain a license to operate there, but decided to eliminate its staff to avoid a confrontation with local regulators, Chanpeng said.
The Financial Services Agency of Japan. The pivot to Malta is produced just when that country is looking for ways to become a center for digital asset companies. The government has conducted several public consultations on the regulation of virtual currencies, the sales of tokens and encrypted exchanges.
Plans to create a Malta Digital Innovation Authority that will certify and regulate Blockchain-based companies and their operations were announced last month, the Malta Independent media reported. The organization will also create a framework to monitor initial offers of currencies, said newspaper.
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