Cryptocurrency exchange OKX said in a statement that it has been granted preliminary authorization under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation.

The preliminary authorization, granted by the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) on January 22, means that the firm has completed the regulator’s due diligence process and is eligible to receive approval for a full MiCA license,

Erald Ghoos, managing director of OKX Europe, said.

“This marks the end of our MiCA application process,” he said.

Following the preliminary authorization, OKX plans to obtain a full MiCA license through its dedicated center in Malta and plans to offer a wide range of services and token pairs.

OKX Says It Will List Over 240 Tokens in Compliance With MiCA

Once it receives full approval from MiCA, the exchange aims to offer localized crypto services to over 400 million users in Europe and support over 240 tokens.

In addition to spot trading, OKX plans to offer over-the-counter and bot trading and support at least 260 trading pairs against the euro.

However, OKX did not disclose which cryptocurrencies it is likely to list on the exchange after full approval from MiCA.

Amid the uncertainty surrounding Tether USDt’s compliance with MiCA, OKX declined to comment on whether it plans to delist the stablecoin.

OKX Selects Malta as MiCA hub in 2024

OKX’s MiCA pre-approval comes months after the exchange selected Malta as its European hub to comply with the EU’s new crypto regulations.

In July 2024, OKX Europe’s Ghoos said the exchange had a team in Malta and was actively preparing for the implementation of MiCA, which comes into full force on December 30, 2024.

At the time, OKX also said it expected to offer crypto staking to EU residents under MiCA, while the OKX Europe director said the transition to the new EU crypto standards would be “minimal.”

A Growing Number of Exchanges Planning MiCA Licenses

Other exchanges, such as Gemini, have also announced their intention to obtain a MiCA license in Malta, pledging to offer their services in Europe through a local hub in the country.

Another major global crypto exchange, Crypto.com, announced its intention to obtain a MiCA license on January 17. Unlike Gemini and OKX, Crypto.com did not specify which jurisdiction it had chosen to obtain the license.

Since the EU’s MiCA came into full force, only a handful of crypto asset service providers (CASPs) have obtained MiCA licenses.

Crypto platform MoonPay was among the first CASPs to receive a license from the Dutch Financial Markets Authority (AFM) on December 30, alongside other firms such as BitStaete, Zebedee Europe and Zebedee Europe.

German stock exchange Boerse Stuttgart, one of Europe’s leading exchange groups, became the first CASP in Germany to receive a full MiCA license on January 17.

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