By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A second cryptocurrency exchange yesterday confirmed it plans to establish and grow a Bahamas presence although it has no plans yet to follow FTX in making this nation a headquarters.

Dr Jillian Bethel, chief executive officer of OKX (Bahamas), speaking during the Crypto Bahamas conference, said: “I moved back to The Bahamas in 2017 because I heard about the DARE (Digital Assets and Registered Exchanges) Act. I heard that it was coming into play in 2018, and I consulted on it, and the DARE Act is just a really, really attractive piece of legislation for anybody in the crypto currency space.

“When you look at it, when you look at different jurisdictions, you see people trying to fit crypto into squares that it just doesn’t fit into, and it will never fit into those squares. So the DARE Act itself is built from the ground up for crypto and it’s built in a jurisdiction that is embracing it big time.

“So we have the Securities Commission, which has been very open to getting more information from the community and the industry, to keep building out that framework and keep including the evolutions of crypto and blockchain and the Metaverse, and all of these things. You don’t see that in any other jurisdiction. So the DARE Act is attractive for those reasons. It’s built for crypto, and it has welcomed the crypto community to really help in framing it up.”

OKX, while making significant strides in developing its Bahamas-based operation, has no intention of making this nation its headquarters yet. Instead, the company will continue to hire Bahamian talent to build-up the local operation and focus on crypto currency education before making any further moves.

Dr Bethel said: “That [education] is something that is a big passion of mine. And in deciding if to join the OKX team, that was a big thing. OKX is not just a crypto exchange. It’s a crypto exchange and a blockchain ecosystem, and a part of that ecosystem has to do with educating people on digital assets. That’s going to help them make business get a little bit better. So those passions and priorities are definitely aligned, and so in educating the public that’s all going to come in the package.”

Understanding the OKX platform is critical because it does not operate as a depository for fiat currency, but only facilitates the exchange of crypto currency between traders. OKX touts itself as the third largest crypto currency exchange in the world and was a platinum sponsor of Crypto Bahamas.

Anthony Cartwright, OKX’s chief operating officer, added: “A part of what makes us safe is that we have adopted a global server-based balancing system. So the tech is pretty sound as far as product offering. We’re one of the first to offer unified accounts, which more or less allow you just to trade across a number of different instruments like spot margin futures and that sort of stuff. So the platform itself is really powerful.”