The U.S. market is in the midst of regulatory mayhem, so when Zodia Markets decided to kick off business, it looked anywhere else, namely Europe and the Middle East.

Zodia Markets, which aims to be an institutional crypto trading partner, is already registered by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority and is in late stage conversations with the central bank of Ireland, which with new EU regulation means a passport to Europe.

Still, the institutional demand for crypto trading is becoming so pronounced in the U.S., even without knowing where crypto will stand in coming years, Zodia’s accelerating plans in the country.

“There's a number of firms that we would like to partner with and like to work with who have said, ‘we need you to be present in the United States,’” said Chief Executive Officer Usman Ahmad. “We have accelerated the strategy to access the U.S. markets. We're in conversations with advisers here. We're going through our registration processes in certain states where we're talking to regulators as well to look at how we could establish ourselves and respond to that client demand.”

(by Christiana Loureiro)