Backpack EU, the owner of FTX EU — the former European arm of the defunct exchange FTX — is launching operations after settling with the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).
Backpack EU, registered with the CySEC as Trek Labs Europe, announced on Monday the launch of its perpetual futures platform in Europe, the company told Cointelegraph.
“After fulfilling our promise to refund former FTX EU customers, we commence our journey to provide one of the first fully regulated crypto derivatives platforms in Europe, starting with perpetual futures,” Backpack CEO Armani Ferrante said.
The announcement follows Backpack’s acquisition of FTX EU in early 2025 and Backpack’s undertaking responsibility for distributing FTX EU customer claims since May.
Operating under a MiFID II license
Backpack EU’s launch of perpetual futures builds on the company’s authorization under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) granted by the CySEC.
The CySEC reissued the MiFID II license to Trek Labs Europe in June 2025 after the company settled with the regulator, paying a total of 200,000 euros ($235,000) for “possible violations” of regulations linked to FTX.
The Cypriot regulator suspended FTX EU’s Cyprus investment firm (CIF) license in November 2022 after the collapse of its global-operating parent, FTX.
Backpack’s FTX EU acquisition story
The launch of Backpack EU marks a new chapter in the complex history of FTX EU, which was founded in Switzerland in 2020 under the original name Digital Assets AG (DAAG).
After acquiring DAAG for $323 million, Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX rebranded the company as FTX EU and officially launched the platform in March 2022. Following FTX’s collapse just months later, several companies, including Coinbase, sought to acquire the business throughout 2022 and 2023.
Eventually, FTX agreed to sell FTX EU back to its founders for $32.7 million in February 2024, who then sold the business to Backpack in early 2025.
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Backpack was founded in 2022 by Solana developer Ferrante, who secured $20 million in funding from FTX and Jump Crypto to build its platform.
“A lot of people questioned me and our team for FTX ties,” Ferrante wrote on X on Monday, stressing that Backpack unsuccessfully attempted to acquire FTX EU before 2025.
“Some people think we’re making our lives harder than they have to be by doing all of this. But it’s precisely the hard things that no one wants to do that are worth doing,” he said, adding:
“This year, we set our sites not just on Europe, but later to Japan, and ultimately our home, the USA. We’ve come a long way, but we have an even longer way to go. Every day. Little by little. Brick by brick.”
In addition to moves in the EU, Backpack has been making strides in expanding its global reach, acquiring a virtual asset service provider (VASP) license for exchange services from the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) in October 2023.
In late 2024, Backpack also joined the Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association as a Type 2 member, which paved the way for entry into the Japanese crypto market.
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