Amsterdam, Netherlands · Startup Bitvavo is an Amsterdam-based cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2018 that lets retail and institutional users buy, sell and store digital assets, and is one of the largest crypto trading platforms in the Benelux region by volume. It is registered with the Dutch central bank and has expanded across Europe under the EU's MiCA regulatory framework.
Limassol, Cyprus · Startup Exness is a Limassol-headquartered retail CFD and forex broker that has quietly become one of the largest trading venues in the world by monthly volume, routinely reporting trillions of dollars in turnover from retail and professional clients across Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. The company operates a proprietary matching and risk-management stack, auto-executes deposits and withdrawals for most of its payment methods, and is regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) in the EU, the FCA in the UK, and a mesh of tier-two regulators covering its non-EU corridors. Founded in 2008 by a small team of Russian-origin quants who chose Cyprus for its EU/MiFID access and English-speaking talent pool, Exness today employs over 2,000 people and is the anchor tenant of the Limassol fintech cluster that also includes crypto exchanges, prop shops, and several CFD challengers. In the European ecosystem it is the most commercially successful Cypriot financial-services company and a useful anchor for understanding why Limassol became a global retail-trading hub.