Prime Minister Philip Davis told the media yesterday following the groundbreaking ceremony for the headquarters of cryptocurrency exchange FTX that he was set to meet with another “digital crypto giant as I leave here”.
Davis said he could not reveal the name of the cryptocurrency firm he was on the way to meet with. This came after he remarked that since the arrival of FTX in The Bahamas there have been numerous inquiries from other firms possibly interested in moving their digital assets business to The Bahamas.
Last October, FTX’s Chief Executive Officer Sam Bankman-Fried predicted that more digital asset firms would move their businesses to The Bahamas if the US failed to build out a regulatory regime for digital currency.
The Bahamas’ introduction of the Digital Assets and Registered Exchanges (DARE) Act led FTX to bring its business to The
Bahamas and Bankman-Fried contended more companies would follow.
During the groundbreaking ceremony for the headquarters, Bankman-Fried said other countries are looking at what The Bahamas has done with the hope of attracting digital asset firms to their own jurisdictions.
“A lot of other countries are incredibly jealous of what you guys have done,” he said.
“I’ve been on the phone with a number of regulators and I think about half the time the call starts with them saying ‘walk us through what The Bahamas did and how can we do that’.”
Davis said his government has planned for this expansion of digital asset exchanges and hopes to grow the number existing in the country.
It was recently revealed that Dr. Jillian Bethel has been appointed chief executive officer of OKX Bahamas. OKX is described as the second largest crypto exchange in the world, based in the Seychelles.
Bethel is listed as a speaker at this week’s Crypto Bahamas conference put on by FTX and global thought leadership and networking forum SALT.
