CEX.IO crypto exchange moves into the US

The CEX.IO cryptocurrency exchange company is ready to take on the U.S. and its fractured money-handling policies. The company has announced that it has received money transmitter licenses in nine states, paving the way for expansion across the country. It has already been operating in some capacity in the U.S. since 2015.

CEX.IO had already been issued a Money Service Business license from FinCEN (the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) in 2015. That license allowed the company to operate in states that didn’t require a separate money transmitter license (MTL), and the new approvals give CEX.IO the ability to service customers in 28 states. Eventually, it plans on servicing all 50 states, as well as all US-controlled territories.

According to a statement from CEX.IO founder and CEO Oleksandr Lutskevych, “The U.S.A. has always been a strategically significant market for our company and the industry in general. This country has always been on the front line of developing blockchain industry infrastructure, and the maturity of the crypto regulation serves as one of the best indicators of that. We believe that the launch of our dedicated CEX.IO US presence will allow a more thorough investigation of the local customers’ needs, facilitate the obtaining of MTL licenses in new states, and make our platform more geared for U.S. crypto users.”

As of the recent approvals, CEX.IO can now provide exchange services to customers in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

CEX.IO has been around since 2013 and reportedly has more than 2.7 million global customers. It offers support for Bitcoin Core, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin and more, all of which can be traded for U.S. dollars, British pounds, the euro or Russian rubles. The company serves customers in 224 countries and territories across the globe.

The company is also the founder of the CryptoUK group, an organization that is designed to improve cooperation between crypto entities and authorities in the U.K. in order to create better operating guidelines for all crypto businesses.