How to check if a crypto exchange is regulated

Find the exact legal entity that operates the exchange, identify the country that entity is registered in, and look that entity up on that country's financial regulator's public register. Being on a register is a strong signal, but an anti-money-laundering registration is not the same as a full licence, and regulation alone does not guarantee your money is safe.

This is the checklist we follow ourselves, and anyone can follow it.

1. Find the operating entity, not the brand

A crypto brand usually operates through several legal entities in different countries, and the name on the app is not the regulated entity. Kraken appears on the European register as Payward Europe Solutions; Crypto.com appears as Foris DAX. Look in the footer, the terms of service or the "about" page for the registered company name and number.

If an exchange will not say plainly which legal entity serves you and where it is registered, treat that as the first warning sign.

2. Look the entity up on the regulator's own register

Regulators publish their own lists. Check the entity there, not on a screenshot on the exchange's marketing page. These are the registers we read:

If the entity is not on the register it claims to be on, that is a serious warning. If it is on a register we do not read, that does not make it unlicensed — it means nobody has checked for you.

3. Know the difference between registered and licensed

Many exchanges say they are "regulated" when what they hold is an anti-money-laundering registration. That obliges them to verify customers and report suspicious transactions. It says little about whether your coins are held separately from the company's own money.

A full authorisation — Japan's FSA regime, Singapore's Payment Services Act, EU MiCA — carries requirements on capital and on how client assets are held. Read what the registration actually covers before you treat it as protection.

4. Check proof of reserves separately

Regulation tells you who is watching the exchange. Proof of reserves tells you whether the assets you deposited are still there. They answer different questions and you need both.

Look for a recent attestation that covers liabilities as well as assets. An exchange that publishes only a wallet balance is telling you half the story: it shows what it holds, not what it owes.

5. Check the incident history

A licence today does not undo a hack from two years ago. Look for what was lost, whether customers were made whole, and whether the exchange said what it changed afterwards. Silence after an incident is itself information.

The short version

1. 1.Find the legal entity and the country it is registered in.
2. 2.Check that entity on the regulator's own public register.
3. 3.Check whether it is an AML registration or a full licence.
4. 4.Check a recent proof of reserves that covers liabilities.
5. 5.Check what happened in past incidents and what changed after.

Takame does steps one and two for the exchanges we track, in the jurisdictions listed above, and shows the source for every record. What we have not checked is left blank rather than filled in with a guess.