Malta’s reputation as a global fintech and cryptocurrency hub has helped win another major crypto exchange. This time, the island nation’s allure proved to be irresistible for ZB.com, a global top five crypto exchange in terms of trading volume. They will be opening an office in the country, strengthening its position as the world’s first blockchain island.
ZB.com Opens Up Shop in World’s First Blockchain Island
Silvio Schembri, Parliamentary Secretary for Digital Economy and Innovation, posted a message on Twitter on August 12 welcoming ZB.com’s decision to move into Malta. Based on Schembri’s tweet, ZB.com will be investing over $20 million in the first three years of its operations in addition to creating 150 jobs.
More #blockchain business to #Malta. Welcome to the #blockchainIsland https://t.co/80zEIomx1W. Looking forward for your investment of over 20M in the first 3 years and employing over 150 people. Meet you all @Delta_Summit
@Cointelegraph @coindesk pic.twitter.com/XjzVqvKgdh— Silvio Schembri (@SilvioSchembri) August 12, 2018
Handling around $400 million in crypto transactions a day, ZB.com is the fifth largest in the world in terms of traded value. The exchange, which is currently headquartered in Hong Kong, stated that it will be expanding its operations in Europe. ZB.com’s Malta office will be located at St Julian’s.
Malta’s Advantage
Despite the island nation’s small size, Malta has been very successful in luring top crypto firms to the country. For instance, earlier this year, Binance, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, is announced that they would be setting up shop in the country. That was soon followed by OKEx.
A big advantage for Malta is that it is the first country to pass a set of distributed ledger technology (DLT) regulations that give crypto firms the peace of mind to do business in the country. The draft laws are in the consultation stage with an expectation that they will come into effect in October 2018.
ZB.com co-founder Jimmy Zhao praised Malta for being progressive when it comes to DLT and cryptos:
“You quickly realize Malta’s commitment to building and supporting the crypto ecosystem.”
