Mobile-first crypto exchange and payment platform Crypto.com has secured a license allowing it to offer cryptocurrency financial derivatives in the European Economic Area.
According to a May 21 announcement, Crypto.com secured a Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) licence.
“We have already expanded our brand presence in Europe since receiving our MiCA licence and we now look forward to providing customers across the region even more ways to engage with our platform through these new offerings,” Crypto.com’s co-founder and CEO, Kris Marszalek, said.
The announcement follows Crypto.com receiving in-principle approval to operate across the European Union under a Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) license in mid-January. The company received regulatory approval for its acquisition of Cyprus-based trading services firm A.N. Allnew Investments from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).
Crypto.com has not immediately answered Cointelegraph’s request for comment.
Related: Coinbase’s Deribit buy shows growing derivatives market
A popular strategy
This is not the first crypto company to have obtained a MiFID license by acquiring a Cyprus-based financial firm in recent times. On May 20, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken announced the launch of regulated derivatives trading on its platform under the European Union’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II).
Like Crypto.com, a Cyprus-based entity plays a role in the strategy, with Kraken relying on MiFID II-regulated entity Payward Europe Digital Solutions to offer its derivatives. The launch follows Kraken completing its acquisition of the futures trading platform NinjaTrader earlier in May as its first-quarter revenue jumped 19% year-on-year to $471.7 million.
Related: CFTC mulling probe of Crypto.com over Super Bowl contracts: Report
Crypto derivatives are all the rage
Recently, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said his firm will continue to look for merger and acquisition opportunities, after acquiring crypto derivatives platform Deribit. The comments came after the publicly listed US crypto exchange earlier this month agreed to acquire Deribit, one of the world’s biggest crypto derivatives trading platforms.
Major crypto exchange Gemini has also recently received regulatory approval to expand crypto derivatives trading across Europe. Lastly, decentralized finance platform Synthetix also plans to venture further into crypto derivatives with plans to re-acquire the crypto options platform Derive.
Crypto.com has also gone through its fair share of acquisitions. Those include Fintek Securities Pty., Charterprime, Orion Principals and SEC-registered broker-dealer Watchdog Capital.
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