How to Check an Exchange's Regulatory Claims Yourself

Why the website is the wrong place to look

A platform’s own page states what the platform wants you to believe. That is not dishonesty so much as selection: a group with operations in a dozen countries will foreground whichever licence reads best to the visitor in front of it.

The claim on the site is a lead. The regulator’s register is the source. The method below moves from one to the other.

Step 1: identify the legal entity

Scroll to the terms of service or the footer and find the company name, not the brand name. Brands and legal entities rarely match.

Write it down exactly, including any suffix such as Ltd, GmbH, Pty or LLC, and any country of incorporation. This is the name you will search for, and getting it slightly wrong is the most common reason a search comes back empty.

If the terms name more than one entity, note which one applies to your country. That is the entity you are checking. A group’s licence in one jurisdiction does not extend to a different entity serving a different region.

Step 2: find the register

Search for the regulator’s own public register rather than a review site’s summary of it. Regulators publish these as searchable databases, and the entry is the record.

Two cautions that matter more than they sound:

• Registration is not licensing. A company registered in a companies house is simply recorded as existing. That is a different thing from being authorised to hold client assets or to deal in investments.
• A licence is scoped. Entries normally state which activities are permitted and sometimes which client categories. Read the scope, not just the status field.

Step 3: match name, scope and country

With the register entry open, check three things:

1. The name matches the entity from the terms of service.
2. The permitted activities cover what you are actually going to do. Holding crypto for clients, operating a trading venue, and advising on investments are typically separate permissions.
3. The jurisdiction is one that supervises the entity you have an account with.

If the licence belongs to a name one word different from your contracting entity, treat it as a different company until you can show otherwise. Group structures often use near-identical names for regulated and unregulated arms.

Step 4: record what you found

Write down the entity, the register, the entry’s status, the scope and the date you checked. This takes a minute and gives you something a website badge never can: a dated, reproducible source.

If a page on this site states a regulatory fact, that is the form the source takes — a named register entry with the date it was read. Our editorial standards set out the rule we hold ourselves to.

What this check does not tell you

Passing all four steps means one specific entity is authorised for specific activities in a specific place. It does not mean:

• that your funds are insured,
• that the platform is financially sound,
• that withdrawals will be processed promptly,
• that the same standards apply to any other entity in the group,
• or that the service is available to you legally in your own country.

Regulatory status is one fact among many. It is a fact worth checking properly, and it is not a substitute for the others.

Where regional questions land

The countries a service may be used from are governed by the platform’s own published restrictions as well as by local law, and those lists change. That is why we do not display sign-up prompts for a region until we have verified that platform’s published terms for it — see our affiliate disclosure for how that rule works in practice.

Risk note. This is a method for checking a claim. It is not financial advice and not a verdict on any platform. A licence in good standing means one specific entity is authorised for specific activities in a specific place; it does not mean your funds are insured, that the business is sound, or that withdrawals will be processed when you ask for them. A check that fails is a reason to look further, and a check that passes is not a reason to stop looking.