Open OKX in Europe today and you can buy Bitcoin. You can also trade gold, silver, oil and US stocks. That second list is the surprise, and it is the whole story of where one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges is heading. I sat down with Roy van Krimpen, OKX’s general manager for Western Europe, at the Dutch Blockchain Week Summit. “This year, it’s the final part of this evolution where we are competing on products,” he told me. “Our MiFID license allows us to offer regulated crypto derivatives, and even TradFi derivatives. So now you can even trade gold derivatives, silver, oil, US stocks, all on OKX as well.”
Getting there meant years of unglamorous groundwork. Van Krimpen’s framing is that OKX spent its recent past pouring the foundation, and is only now building on top of it.
| What you need to know |
|---|
| 1OKX now holds what its Western Europe chief calls a "holy trinity" of approvals: a MiCA license, a MiFID license and a payment-institution license. |
| 2The MiFID license lets OKX offer regulated crypto derivatives alongside traditional-finance products such as gold, silver, oil and US-stock derivatives in Europe. |
| 3From 1 July 2026, every EU member state requires a crypto exchange to hold a MiCA license, and France's regulator warns directors of unlicensed firms could face up to two years' imprisonment. |
| 4ICE, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, has taken a minority stake in OKX and a global board seat, signaling deeper convergence between traditional finance and crypto. |
The holy trinity of licenses
The foundation is a stack of approvals most users never think about. “We now have three of those,” he told me. “Since the first time we met, we’ve obtained a MiCA license for Europe, a MiFID license, as well as a PI, a payment-institution license.” He later called it “the holy trinity of licenses to offer what we want to offer.”
The licenses are only the start. “On top of those, you also have DORA for your resilience, DAC8 for taxes, GDPR for privacy and safely storing client data,” he said. “All of those we now comply with.” OKX also localized the basics, from KYC in local languages to fiat rails like iDEAL, SEPA, PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay. Only with that in place, he says, does competing on product make sense.
The July 1 deadline that ends the grace period
The timing is not academic. “The first of July will be the date that every EU member state will require a crypto exchange to have the MiCA license,” he told me. “If you acquire customers in that country without the license, then you’re operating illegally throughout Europe.” For OKX, which says the process was smooth, the deadline is less a threat than an opening, even as compliance specialists warn that hundreds of unlicensed firms still face the same MiCA cutoff.
His definition of a rival was one of the sharpest lines I heard. “For us, competition are the ones that have the approval to compete in this market,” he said. There are, by his count, not many of them. “OKX is in a unique position to have the approval to offer these products.”
Bringing offshore trading home
The strategy that follows is simple to state and hard to execute: capture the traders who are about to lose their offshore venues. “We will bring that offshore trading back onshore, where consumer protection applies,” he told me. “Your data is safely secured in the European data center, instead of somewhere offshore.” OKX’s job, in his telling, is to mirror the advanced experience those traders are used to, minus the legal exposure. “We try to have a product that mirrors their experience as a crypto trader on an advanced platform, but then in a secure environment.”
He is blunt about the stakes for firms that did not prepare. “It cannot be a competitive advantage to not go for a license,” he said. The enforcement, he warns, is real. “The French regulator, the AMF, have been very vocal. They said that directors could even get up to two years’ imprisonment for illegally offering their services.”
The NYSE’s parent quietly walks in
The biggest sign of where this is going has nothing to do with retail. It is who just bought a seat at OKX’s table. “ICE, the mothership behind the New York Stock Exchange, has invested in OKX and took a minority share,” he told me. “Not just a financial stake. They also took a global board seat with OKX.” He is clear this is not a punt on prices. “It’s not just an investment as speculation that crypto will grow. These are strategic partnerships being formed to bring TradFi and crypto even closer to each other.”
His read is that the two worlds were always going to converge once the rules lined up. “TradFi was already licensed and regulated for many years. They were actually waiting for crypto to get regulated as well, so they can match their processes with ours,” he said. “Blockchain technology has a lot of opportunities to make the TradFi industry more efficient, with less trust needed and fewer intermediaries.”
What it means for Europe
OKX’s bet is that regulation, far from killing crypto in Europe, decides who is left standing in it. The exchanges that built compliance departments years early get to offer derivatives on gold and US stocks while unlicensed rivals scramble to exit before July 1. Van Krimpen’s job title, which he and I joke about every time we meet because it keeps changing, is now general manager for Western Europe, and his mandate is plain. “We want to make sure that we grow OKX in Europe,” he said. “Many clients are sticking with their current broker or exchange, even though they have less innovation and an inferior product offering.” His pitch to them is the regulated venue where, soon, the offshore experience will live onshore.
