Zonda brings European crypto exchange to Canada with FINTRAC approval
The Polish crypto exchange serves more than one million customers and has recently rebranded from BitBay.
Zonda has become the first European cryptocurrency exchange to be granted regulatory approval to operate in Canada, signaling a new chapter for digital currencies in the country, the firm announced.
Catering to more than a million active users, the European-based digital currency exchange has rubber stamped its plans to launch in the North American market in H2 2022.
New generation of crypto users is gravitating towards regulated platforms
The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Center of Canada (FINTRAC) has granted Zonda the ability to operate in the country as a Money Services Business (MSB) as long as the crypto exchange complies with specific obligations to combat money laundering and terrorist activity financing in Canada.
Przemysław Kral, CEO of Zonda, said: “Canada has long been a regulatory pioneer, becoming the first country to pass a national law on digital currencies in 2014, and maintaining an open mind to innovation in the crypto space ever since. It’s this proactive and well-reasoned approach to regulation that makes it the natural next step for Zonda’s global expansion plans, as we bring our services to new markets around the world.
“With every step we take outside Europe, our ambition is the same. To be the leading fully regulated crypto exchange, making it as simple as possible for people to use digital money securely. A new generation of crypto users is gravitating towards regulated platforms, and it’s for this reason that we are working with regulators around the world to transform how deposits, trades and tax flow transparently to, through and from exchanges.”
Zonda serves more than one million customers and the Canadian expansion will further add liquidity to the trading platform, which also boasts a range of new tools to help investors trade more than 60 coins and tokens paired with fiat currencies (EUR, USD, GBP and PLN) and stablecoins (USDT and USDC), and BTC and ETH).
Polish crypto exchange rebranded from BitBay to Zonda in 2021
In early November 2021, BitBay announced the rebranding to Zonda, including a name and logo change.
“We have come a long way since those early days in Poland, when just 3,000 users would use our platform predominantly to trade Bitcoin. Fast forward to today and BitBay is a well-known brand for European cryptocurrency investors, with more than one million registered users, a suite of products, and over 50 currencies available to trade.
“Eight years of growth, and a rapidly expanding portfolio of products, have led us to the next step in our evolution. A new name, Zonda, which reflects the ‘winds of change’ currently taking place in the industry; a new strategy, focused on regulation, simplification, and education; and a new leadership team, with ambitions to grow the company’s global footprint”, the firm explained.
The newly appointed board of directors includes Przemysław Kral as CEO; Kamil Sikorski as Chief Growth Officer; and David Sendecki as CCO.
The firm has recently named Jakob Lundqvist as Chief Technology Officer (CTO), a month after hiring Przemysław Kralnew as Chief Executive Officer.
