Which Countries Does Bitstamp Restrict?

Bitstamp's Terms of Use contain no named country list, instead barring anyone under sanctions or located where service would be unlawful. Day-to-day availability sits in the Help Centre's country list, and the markets below stay closed under the sanctions regimes binding Bitstamp's entities in the US, UK, EU and Singapore. Canada is the one voluntary exit.

Bitstamp discontinued Canadian services on January 8, 2024, closing all local accounts after the Canadian Securities Administrators imposed registration rules that also drove Binance, Bybit and OKX out. A Bitstamp-branded return looks unlikely, since parent Robinhood covered Canada by agreeing to acquire local operator WonderFi in 2025. Canadians can compare CSA-registered platforms in our best crypto exchanges in Canada guide.

Within the US, Bitstamp also skips Hawaii and Nevada, having chosen not to pursue those state licences. Like the Canadian exit, these gaps stem from Bitstamp's licensing choices and impose no legal ban on the customer's side.

Bitstamp's Ukraine coverage is stricter than most rivals. Many exchanges block only Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk, while Bitstamp also excludes occupied Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, matching the full territorial scope of EU and US sanctions.

Why Bitstamp Restricts These Countries

Apart from Canada, every jurisdiction on the blocked list appears in at least one major sanctions programme. OFAC maintains comprehensive embargoes on Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria and the occupied Ukrainian regions, while the EU, UK and Singapore run parallel measures against Russia. With entities supervised in all four regimes, Bitstamp applies the widest combined reading of those rules.

The Russia block goes beyond onboarding. Bitstamp stopped serving Russian residents after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, froze affected accounts and cut off deposits from sanctioned Russian banks such as Sberbank. China is a separate case, since Beijing's own prohibition on exchange services closes the mainland to every centralised platform regardless of sanctions.

The list is also strikingly short. Offshore venues respond to strict regimes like the US, UK and Singapore by walking away, which is why their exclusion clauses often run to 15 or more entries. Bitstamp instead acquired authorisations in those markets, leaving only jurisdictions where no licence can make service lawful.

Bitstamp Supported Countries

Bitstamp operates in more than 100 countries and assigns each customer to a legal entity by residency:

• Bitstamp Europe S.A. (Luxembourg): serves EEA customers under the MiCA and Payment Institution licences
• Bitstamp UK Ltd: serves UK customers under its FCA registration
• Bitstamp USA, Inc.: serves American customers through state-level licensing
• Bitstamp Asia Pte Ltd: serves Singapore customers under the MAS licence
• Bitstamp Global Ltd (BVI): serves most other eligible users worldwide

Product availability shifts with the entity. Spot trading, recurring buys and the OTC desk reach most supported markets, while staking and lending remain regional and crypto derivatives serve only eligible European customers. The exchange lists over 100 digital assets, with a narrower US roster shaped by state-level rules.

European users get the deepest offering, since the MiCA passport covers all 30 EEA states and SEPA rails handle euro funding. Readers can compare regulated venues in the region in our best crypto exchanges in Europe guide, and UK traders can find Faster Payments-enabled platforms in our best crypto exchanges in the UK roundup.

Can I Use Bitstamp in the United States?

Yes. Bitstamp USA, Inc. holds a BitLicense from the New York State Department of Financial Services, money transmitter licences across most states, and a Money Services Business registration with FinCEN, all visible in its NMLS record. Few global exchanges serve Americans through a domestic, state-licensed entity rather than an offshore loophole.

Two gaps apply. Residents of Hawaii and Nevada cannot register, and features narrow elsewhere, with derivatives unavailable to US customers and Earn products restricted in several states. Americans can compare domestic platforms in our best crypto exchanges in the USA guide.

What the Robinhood Acquisition Changed

Robinhood closed its $200 million acquisition of Bitstamp on June 2, 2025, rebranding the platform as Bitstamp by Robinhood. The deal handed Robinhood its first institutional crypto business along with more than 50 licences and registrations, while retail service continued through existing apps and entities.

Since the close, the platform has moved on several fronts at once:

• Institutional scale: Robinhood's Q4 2025 results put Bitstamp notional volumes at $48 billion for the quarter, with institutional volumes more than doubling since the deal closed
• Bank partnerships: the exchange now supplies liquidity to banks, powering BBVA's retail Bitcoin and Ethereum trading in Spain through its crypto-as-a-service programme
• EU derivatives: Bitstamp Financial Services, a MiFID investment firm supervised by Slovenia's Securities Market Agency, runs a Multilateral Trading Facility that began with crypto perpetual swaps and added multi-asset perpetual futures in July 2026, covering FX, equity indices, gold, silver and oil with up to 10x leverage for eligible EU customers; these contracts are unavailable in the US, Canada and Japan
• Independent ratings: Kaiko's latest quarterly ranking places Bitstamp second overall on a fifth consecutive AA rating

Bitstamp Licences and Regulation

Bitstamp is one of the most heavily licensed exchanges in the industry, with each regional entity holding its own authorisation.

The MiCA CASP licence, granted by the CSSF in May 2025, covers trading, order execution and crypto custody across the EEA. The Singapore Major Payment Institution licence followed in July 2025 and anchors its APAC expansion, while the BVI registration completed in February 2026 formalised the entity serving customers outside those core regions.

Does Bitstamp Require KYC?

Yes, and there is no unverified tier. Every customer must complete full identity verification before trading, depositing fiat or withdrawing, submitting a government-issued ID, proof of address and income and source-of-funds details. US customers also complete a FATCA declaration.

Screening continues after onboarding. Accounts are checked against sanctions lists, and verification re-triggers when documents expire or activity raises flags. Anyone drawn to exchanges that skip these checks will find Bitstamp a poor match, since mandatory verification is central to how it keeps its licences.

About Bitstamp

Bitstamp was founded in 2011 by Nejc Kodrič and Damijan Merlak in Slovenia and is the world's longest-running crypto exchange, headquartered in Luxembourg with offices in London, Ljubljana, Singapore and the US. It serves more than four million customers and runs its markets on Nasdaq matching-engine technology.

Security has defined its reputation. Roughly 95% of customer assets sit in cold storage, the company holds ISO/IEC 27001 and SOC 2 Type 2 certifications, and its only major breach, a 2015 theft of around 19,000 BTC, was absorbed internally with trading restored within a week. Since June 2025 it has operated as a subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, serving both retail traders and institutions.

Final Thoughts

Bitstamp's restricted list is one of the narrowest among major exchanges, confined to Russia, the occupied Ukrainian regions, China, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Cuba and Sudan. That brevity reflects a licence-first model that keeps the US, UK, EEA and Singapore open where offshore rivals opt out.

The material change since our last update is ownership. Under Robinhood, Bitstamp has added a MiCA licence, a Singapore MPI licence, a BVI registration and an EU derivatives venue, while its institutional volumes have more than doubled.

Canadians and residents of Hawaii and Nevada still need an alternative, and feature depth varies by entity, so check the live Terms of Use and your assigned region before depositing.