Malta is the territory with by far the most trading volume of cryptocurrency exchanges, according to Morgan Stanley.
An analysis carried out by the international investment bank mapped out the locations and trading volumes of cryptocurrency exchanges, categorised by country, and found Malta to be punching well above its weight, despite having only the 24th biggest population of cryptocurrency exchanges.
The biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, Binance, recently announced that it would be moving to Malta shortly, which had a significant effect on the rankings. Other Blockchain-based firms including OKEx, Neufund and Poseidon have also announced their intentions to move to Malta or expand operations here.
The report concluded that cryptocurrency exchanges are attracted by regulation which allows them legitimacy but is also not too harsh, something that is lacking in most of the world.
“Defined but also attractive regulation makes an exchange decide to choose one country over another – a set of laws for companies to follow when handling digital tokens, customer assets, AML policies, taxes, etc. Regulatory certainty is part of the attractiveness for the companies so they can plan for the future as they know what to expect. Low taxes are a benefit,” wrote Sheena Shah, who headed the Morgan Stanley research team.
