If you’ve recently arrived in Malta and found yourself wedged between a fintech lawyer and a blockchain evangelist at a Valletta wine bar, congratulations. You are living on what the industry now unironically calls “Blockchain Island.” It’s a nickname that sounds like it was dreamed up at a hackathon in 2017 and never quite went away. As it turns out, it’s also becoming one of the most consequential titles in European finance. Here’s what’s been happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
March brought news that Blockchain<\/a><\/em>, one of the most recognised names in crypto market, has planted its European flag firmly in Maltese crypto market. The company has processed over $1.2 trillion<\/strong> in transactions and manages more than 90 million<\/strong> wallets since launching in 2011. It secured its MiCA licence<\/a> from the MFSA and opened a Valletta office that will serve as its gateway to the entire European Economic Area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fiorentina D’Amore<\/a><\/em>, who heads up the Malta operation, put it plainly: “We didn’t pick Malta by accident. Malta has taken a thoughtful and forward-looking approach to digital asset regulation.”<\/em> High praise, and not the kind companies dish out just to be polite when they’re choosing where to park their European HQ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Blockchain isn’t alone. BVNK<\/a>, a stablecoin<\/a> infrastructure firm, secured its own CASP licence from the MFSA in February, gaining access to MiCA-regulated digital asset services across all EEA member states. Before them came OKX, Crypto.com, Zwillinge<\/a>, and Bitpanda. We’ve covered several of these arrivals in previous articles. Malta has been collecting crypto licences the way other Mediterranean islands collect tourists, except the tourists here arrive in suits and bring their compliance teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n