MEXC Decides EU Compliance Is Hot, Taps Ex-Bitget COO to Handle the MiCA Situation

MEXC has a new captain at the helm. The exchange appointed Vugar Usi as CEO on Wednesday, tasking the former Bitget COO with steering the platform through increasingly turbulent regulatory waters. Because nothing says "we mean business" like stealing talent from your competitors and giving them a bigger office.

Usi joined MEXC as chief operating officer in late 2025 after stints at rival exchange Bitget. Now in the top seat, he's making one thing clear: MEXC wants its MiCA license, and it wants it bad. The kind of bad that comes from getting caught doing the wrong thing in front of the wrong regulators.

"The MiCA license application is a top strategic priority for the company," Usi told Cointelegraph, adding that MEXC is actively preparing to establish a fully compliant business entity within the EU. Translation: we're very, very interested in not getting fined into oblivion.

The timing isn't coincidental. Dutch authorities flagged MEXC in September 2025 for providing crypto services in the Netherlands without the required license, leaving the exchange labeled non-compliant by European regulators. Nothing says 'we need to get licensed' quite like a regulatory slap on the wrist. A very public, very embarrassing wrist slap heard round the crypto world.

Beyond the compliance push, Usi said MEXC plans to keep its low-fee trading focus while expanding multi-asset access on the platform. The company also rolled out a broader brand update, joining the industry-wide shift toward "everything exchange" models as competition from decentralized rivals heats up. Because apparently being a centralized exchange wasn't complicated enough—now everyone wants to be everything to everyone.

Founded in April 2018, MEXC has grown into a trading volume beast, with reported daily volumes around $2.2 billion according to CoinGecko. CryptoQuant's Exchange Leader Index ranks it among the top three exchanges alongside Binance and Gate. That's right, the "little exchange that could" is now rubbing shoulders with the big dogs, probably still wearing its hoodie from 2019.

The exchange has also been busy on the partnership front, scoring an auditing collaboration with Hacken and a close relationship with The Open Network, which received funding from MEXC Ventures in late 2023. Nothing says "we're legit" like getting audited and throwing money at Telegram's blockchain. $TON holders everywhere are nodding approvingly.

MiCA licensing has become the crypto exchange Olympics, with major players racing to get approved. Binance, the world's largest exchange by volume, applied for a MiCA license in Greece back in January. MEXC is now officially in the race. The starting gun has fired, the lanes are drawn, and somewhere in the EU, a bureaucrat is watching these exchanges compete for permission to exist. Let the games begin.