OKX Launches in France as Bybit Enters EU Under MiCA Rules

Replace (July 2, 2025, at 2:10 pm UTC): This text has been up to date so as to add commentary by Erald Ghoos, OKX Europe CEO.

Crypto exchanges Bybit and OKX each launched totally regulated platforms in Europe this week as regulatory readability continues to draw main exchanges to the bloc.

In keeping with a Wednesday announcement, crypto trade Bybit.eu launched to serve European Financial Space (EEA) customers with a Crypto-Asset Service Supplier (CASP) license below the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) framework. Under the foundations, Bybit’s Austria-based operations, established in late May, are licensed in 29 EEA nations.

Competing crypto trade OKX additionally announced on Wednesday that it has launched its totally regulated centralized crypto trade in France through MiCA passporting. OKX Europe CEO Erald Ghoos stated France is a key marketplace for the corporate and its presence there’s “a serious milestone in our European growth.”

Bybit.eu presents a multi-lingual platform with help for English, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish, with plans so as to add German, French, Italian and Romanian. The trade stated it can mixture liquidity from a number of suppliers and provide superior buying and selling instruments tailor-made for European retail and institutional customers.

OKX’s platform consists of euro buying and selling pairs, staking merchandise and buying and selling bots, together with localized buyer help.

OKX Europe CEO Erald Ghoos instructed Cointelegraph that the agency is totally aligned with MiCA requirements and can also be a licensed custodian in Europe. Person funds are reportedly totally segregated as required by the framework.

Ghoos stated OKX additionally supplies “MiCA-aligned custodian safeguards, together with off-balance-sheet therapy of consumer belongings and automated reconciliation protocols.”

Associated: Coinbase secures MiCA license, names Luxembourg as EU headquarters

MiCA modifications crypto in Europe

The 2 launches come simply months after MiCA got here totally into impact on Dec. 30, 2024. The brand new guidelines standardize crypto regulation throughout the EU and introduce a passporting mechanism, enabling licensed companies to function in any EEA nation without having further approvals.

That is additionally a main cause cited in favor of building crypto service supplier operations in the EEA rather than in competing jurisdictions such as the UK.

Associated: ‘Policy procrastination’ leaves UK trailing EU, US in crypto regulation: Experts

Europe is a crypto battlefield

The European Financial Space is seeing elevated exercise following the unification of its regulatory setting. On Tuesday, the World Greenback (USDG) stablecoin launched in the EU, with issuer Paxos claiming compliance with MiCA.

On Saturday, crypto trade Bitvavo was granted a MiCA license by the Dutch Authority for Monetary Markets, permitting it to passport throughout the EEA. Kraken, one of many world’s oldest crypto exchanges, additionally introduced on June 25 that it’s expanding its EEA operations after securing a MiCA license.

Konstantins Vasilenko, co-founder and govt of Paybis, Europe, just lately stated that Europe is pulling forward in the worldwide crypto race below its MiCA framework. He said that the EU is outpacing even US President Donald Trump’s crypto-friendly America.

“MiCA’s licensing window opened on Jan. 1, 2025; in that very quarter, our EU volumes jumped 70% whereas the variety of trades hardly moved, which tells me the brand new cash was bigger and extra deliberate,” Vasilenko stated.

Journal: How crypto laws are changing across the world in 2025