The Cyprus financial authority has extended its suspension of FTX Europe, barring the platform from resuming full operations until at least May 2025. This is the fourth time the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) has prolonged the suspension following FTX’s high-profile collapse in 2022. FTX Europeâ€TMs license remains restricted, banning it from selling financial services, onboarding new clients, or advertising its platform.
CySEC notified this regulation extension on November 5, restricting FTX Europe’s activities to processing withdrawals and handling transactions that return monies to its consumers. The restriction, which has been in place since November 2022, is consistent with CySEC’s goal to protect client funds and check the platform’s management suitability, particularly in light of serious financial mismanagement allegations made during FTX’s bankruptcy filing in the US.
FTX Europe was founded as Digital Assets AG, a Swiss corporation, and acquired by FTX in 2021 for $323 million, a figure that FTX’s restructuring team later criticized as an “overpayment.” Following FTX’s bankruptcy in the United States, the restructuring team tried to recoup these acquisition monies, eventually agreeing to sell FTX Europe back to its original owners for $32.7 million, a fraction of the initial acquisition cost.
While the platform’s website no longer provides trading features, it still allows existing users to monitor balances and request withdrawals. We will transfer any unclaimed client monies to a “client segregated account,” available for six years. This arrangement seeks to ensure that users can still reclaim their assets while the suspension is in place. As the FTX situation continues, CySEC’s continuous monitoring illustrates Cyprus’ cautious regulatory approach to bitcoin, demonstrating a commitment to safeguarding investor protections in the face of complex legal and financial
