Coinsquare, one of Canada’s biggest digital currency exchanges, has announced the next phase of its bid to become a global crypto exchange, opening for business in the European Union in Q4 2018.
Coinsquare, aka Canada’s Coinbase, said in a statement on Thursday that customers across Europe will have access to its entire suite of coins. At present, it supports trading of Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin, XRP, Dogecoin, and Dash. Coinsquare stores the bulk of its assets in so-called Cold Storage , which uses offline servers to prevent theft.
The Toronto-based exchange claims $5 billion per year of cryptocurrency trades and over 100,000 customers. The company raised $23.63 million in a funding round earlier this year and is targeting a $120 million IPO in September to help finance an overseas expansion.
The trading venue is also making inroads into Asia as it plans to open a new cryptocurrency exchange in Japan. The move, which involves a partnership with Blockchain investment bank DLTa21, comes as Japanese regulators investigate such exchanges in the country after hackers stole millions in some of the world’s biggest cyber-heists.
Coinsquare expressed confidence that its venture would pass without hitches as the new partnership combines its crypto platform technology with “DLTa21’s Japan and Canada based team of experts in trading, compliance, and blockchain / distributed ledger technologies (DLT).”
Prospects of lucrative business
Europe is seen as a global cryptocurrency hub, and with the exponential increase in prices last year, the number of market participants also ramped up.
Overall, 2017 was a watershed year for the virtual asset class in Europe. A recent survey showed that one in three German millennials would consider including cryptocurrency into their investment portfolios. A further 46 percent are seriously considering investing in a digital currency by the end of 2018, the study found.
Commenting on the news, Cole Diamond, CEO of Coinsquare, said: "Entering on a massive market like the EU is an exciting step closer to Coinsquare's vision of becoming a global 21st century financial institution. Already the premier cryptocurrency exchange in Canada, we are careful in how we expand internationally to ensure we can offer the same high quality, secure service in every country we operate."
