Crypto Exchange Giant Moves to Tiny Island in the Med

It may be one of the smallest countries, but Malta is fast becoming the blockchain capital of the world. The sunny tourist spot has been hailed “Blockchain Island” as all the top cryptocurrency exchange plots head to the archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea.

Chinese cryptocurrency exchange and wallet provider Zb.com has announced it will be following the footsteps of Binance, Bitbay, OKEx and DQR, who have also set up their offices on the European island. With its headquarters in Hong Kong, ZB.com is currently the world’s fifth-largest cryptocurrency exchange by daily trading volume. It will set up its operations in Europe with the launch of a new exchange in Malta. The office will be based in St Julian’s, a thriving business centre in the heart of Malta.

At first, ZB.com will start out as a crypto-to-crypto exchange and will eventually expand into offering fiat-to-crypto trading pairs through its new platform based out of the European island nation.

Co-founder of ZB.com Jimmy Zhao said:

“Malta is perhaps the world’s most progressive and forward-thinking nation in DLT, crypto and fintech, and we are very excited to be part of the Blockchain Island”.

He goes on to say:

“We are confident we will be able to announce our live operations soon. Malta is an archipelago in the central Mediterranean between Sicily and the North African coast - a nation known for historic sites related to a succession of rulers including the Romans, Moors, Knights of Saint John, French and British”.

Over the centuries, the country’s strategic position has fostered its development as an important trading post, and it remains a leading centre for container and freight transhipment, as well as being a popular holiday destination.

While other countries remain cautious in the crypto space with several stalling on their regulation and implementation of crypto and blockchain companies, Malta is certainly not holding back.

The country is forging ahead by updating its laws to become more accommodating to innovators in crypto and blockchain, helping the island to establish its position as a leading authority in the cryptocurrency space. The crypto bills are currently undergoing a consultation process, so there is still no tangible exchange which has started up yet since the blockchain laws will not come into effect until October 1st.

However, the bold move of Zb.com which has captured the attention of some of the biggest global cryptocurrency exchanges. Binance, one of the largest, moved its operations to the EU nation and other exchanges quickly followed suit. Zhao was invited to Malta to meet with the Maltese government to discuss their crypto exchange operations. He said:

“You quickly realize Malta’s commitment to building and supporting the crypto ecosystem,”

he added:

“ZB.com regularly ranks among the five largest cryptocurrency exchanges in terms of daily trading volume, according to CoinMarketCap, trading an average of about $400m daily. The proprietary technology behind ZB.com also supports several other top-tier exchanges such as EXX.com”.

ZB.com is strictly a cryptocurrency exchange and does not offer any other type of tradeable assets. That being said, there are various markets in which these cryptocurrencies can be traded. For instance, traders can exchange cryptocurrencies against QCash (QC), tether (USDT), and bitcoin (BTC).

The leading exchange ZB.com will herald its arrival on the island by exhibiting at the Malta Blockchain Summit in November which is expected to have a strong global representation of blockchain entrepreneurs.

By Joy Lewis.