The Mediterranean island of the island of Malta made headlines in 2018 as the iconic "blockchain island", being the first jurisdiction in the world to regulate digital ledger technologies.
The applications of blockchain technology are boundless and projects of all kinds in the fields of logistics, health, energy and the financial sector are optimistic that they will help improve human life around the world by integrating trust immutable in the very code of the digital economy.
The first companies to benefit from the Maltese regulations that came into force in November of this year are the cryptocurrency trade, now in full swing to go live according to the provisions of a regulated market.
Since the cryptocurrency trade is currently operating in a legal vacuum, Malta has issued a 12-month transition period from which the law was passed until the exchanges are to be fully authorized to continue operating.
Transition period
The managing director of the Maltese financial regulator, Joseph Cuschieri, told the media that these exchanges must comply with all the legal provisions regulating the sector and that during the transition period they must obtain a license in 2019 in order to continue to operate beyond November 2019, regardless of when operations were started for the first time.
"Once the law is in effect, as a company you are obliged to comply with this law, even before you are granted a license, Joseph Cuschieri said in an interview in Malta today at the start of this issue. "year." If, on the other hand, you are not licensed, then you can not operate in Malta anymore. "
The new laws are quite strict and are expected to discourage untrustworthy operators, which are promising for the sector as it fuels consolidation and provides security for operators using the platform.
This point can not be stressed enough in these times as the SEC recently ordered the selection of ICOs selected as titles.
Go to live
One of the first Maltese exchanges underway with its platform in January is ZBX, the European arm of ZB.com, which has a daily turnover of 300 million euros and is therefore one of the first five cryptocurrency exchanges in the world.
ZBX is led by former institutional trader Dave Pulis as the company's CEO.
In a recent article on Forbes, ZBX is described as an exchange surrounded by "high expectations" while trying to solve five well-known problems in the cryptocurrency sector.
First of all, ZBX will become one of the first cryptocurrency exchanges fully integrated with a Maltese license. The founders emphasize the importance of a secure platform and have made an effort to do things correctly.
Reviewers of the "Big Four"
For example, ZBX will be controlled by one of the "Big Four" auditing firms. "This is a breath of fresh air that is so much needed for industry and a big step forward in bringing the encryption industry on a par with the financial industry," says Dave Pulis.
The technology used for the platform is built by the same people behind ZB.com, which has an excellent track record without hacks signaled by the start of the exchange in 2013. This makes it attractive to retailers and institutional operators alike. way.
In the Forbes interview, Pulis explained that he will present a friendly user interface and an infrastructure with low latency, low latency, API access to deep liquidity.
There will also be zero commissions for certain trading volumes. This recipe is clearly designed to attract as much liquidity as possible.
"ZBX will be one of the most liquid exchanges on the planet with shared liquidity between the ZB exchange family (ZB, ZBX and ZBG)," says Pulis.
Stablecoins
ZBX Beta is already open for registrations, but it will not be open for trading until the beginning of next year. Accepts deposits and withdrawals in both EUR and USD, and also holds tradable and stablecoin pairs of shares in both currencies.
Other currencies are expected later in 2019, which is when ZBX expects to be authorized for STO listings: another interesting feature.
The buzz around the STOs has increased within the encrypted space while the appetite for the ICOs is pointing down.
strict
As securities regulation is much stricter, STOs are seen as a more reliable opportunity for investors and a more secure financing vehicle for entrepreneurs, considering the current regulatory landscape surrounding ICOs.
Finally, ZBX also aims to build the biggest Over The Counter in the world [OTC] desk. It is known that OTC transactions are risky and have remained controversial within the cryptographic space due to the high number of scammers and lack of transparency.
ZBX seeks to counteract this trend by offering to regulate OTC transactions on its regulated platform with transparent procedures. Trading desks will be welcome to open the regulated exchange accounts so that the issue of trust between buyers and sellers of cryptocurrency is resolved, which adds further liquidity to the platform.
Resolving all these problems, it is undoubtedly a reliable exchange to keep watch while the new year begins with the exchange of regulated cryptocurrencies that run on top of the "blockchain island".