The exchange said that licensing approvals in Europe and the US launch were two of the main reasons why activity on its compliant platforms had increased.
OKX, a cryptocurrency exchange, reported that the volume of trades in its licensed and regulated markets grew 53 times in 2025. This was due to the company’s growth into the US and the European Economic Area.
The exchange said that daily active wallets doubled over the previous year, with an average of roughly 190,000 new wallets established each day. It also noted that decentralised exchange volume on its platform surged 262% globally while centralised trading rose 16% over the same time period.
The company’s market success was due to an operational approach that relied on licensed access to regulated markets. In January, OKX grew in the European Economic Area after getting a licence from the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets framework, or MiCA.
The exchange said that its launch into the US market in April came at the same time as a number of positive regulatory changes, such as the enactment of the GENIUS Act and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s efforts to charter crypto-native trust banks.
According to CoinMarketCap, OKX is the fourth largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world. This ranking takes into account things like platform traffic, liquidity, reported trading volume, and how much people trust the volume.
In December, the Ministry of Information in Belarus stopped access to the global websites of many cryptocurrency exchanges, including OKX. They said this was because the exchanges were breaking the country’s Law on Mass Media by showing “inappropriate advertising.”
European and US regulatory developments reshape crypto exchange
The MiCA regulation created a single licensing framework for all crypto service providers in the EU. It was fully in effect for exchanges in December 2024. Since then, many major platforms have tried to get the rights they need to offer services throughout the European Economic Area.
Bybit was allowed to do business in Austria in 2025 by the Financial Market Authority. The company then moved its European headquarters to Vienna. A month later, Coinbase got a MiCA license from Luxembourg and made the country its regional base.
According to regulatory documents, Kraken got approval from the Central Bank of Ireland after getting MiFID and electronic money licenses. Gemini got approval from Malta’s Financial Services Authority in August.
The GENIUS Act, which passed in July, set up a government framework for the issue and usage of stablecoins in the US. According to data from DefiLlama, the stablecoin market is now worth more over $310 billion. Tether’s USDt USDT$1 and Circle’s USDC USDC$1, which are backed by US dollars, make up around 85% of the entire supply.