Bybit Gets EU License. Will This Affect Russian Users?
Crypto exchange Bybit has received a license to operate under the European regulation MiCA in Austria. Information about the registration is posted on the website of the local regulator FMA, RBC Crypto reports.
The MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) rules came into force at the beginning of the year and allow crypto companies with a license in one EU country to provide services throughout the EU. According to the FMA website, the license was issued to a legal entity called Bybit EU GmbH, registered in Austria.
Bybit was founded in 2018 by entrepreneur Ben Zhou and has been based in Dubai since 2022. According to CoinMarketCap, it is the second-largest cryptocurrency in the world by trading volume, behind Binance.
In May 2022, Bybit was blacklisted by France's regulator, the Financial Market Authority (Autorité des Marchés Financiers, AMF), for operating without a license. But in February of this year, the exchange's CEO announced that it was no longer on the list and intended to obtain a MiCA license.
Bybit is one of the most popular crypto exchanges among Russians. In April, the share of Russian traffic on the platform was 26%. Previously, the Deribit platform was also popular with traders from Russia, but in early February it announced its withdrawal from the country due to EU sanctions; and on May 8, it became known that the platform was bought by the American exchange Coinbase for $2.9 billion.
Bybit's departure from Russia for the same reasons is unlikely, according to Denis Polyakov, head of the Digital Economy practice at GMT Legal. He explained that Bybit has legal entities with licenses in a number of other countries in addition to the EU – according to publicly available data, at least in the UAE (license from VARA), Georgia and Kazakhstan (within the AIFC).
In fact, the services of the “global Bybit” can be offered by such companies, since the regulators of these countries do not set restrictions for Russians, the lawyer says. At the same time, according to him, a separate platform will be allocated for European users.
“Such a separate platform will still be needed, since a number of tokens and other instruments currently traded on Bybit cannot be offered to European users. For example, USDT, which has not yet been recognized as an EMT (electronic money token) in the EU,” says Polyakov.
The lawyer recalled that a similar practice of separating platforms was already undertaken by Bybit when they received a license in Hong Kong and worked with local users through a separate website. Therefore, according to him, the same approach will probably be taken in the case of the EU.
Источник: cryptocurrency.tech
