Bitex will launch in mid-2018 with a subset of banking services offered to customers in 8 countries (Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates), with plans for expanding its reach in the future. Services will be operated by local partners that license the Bitex platform as a franchise and who will register with the financial authorities in their respective countries. By working with local partners, who have a much better understanding of local customers and regulators and making available localized applications and customer support, the Bitex crypto-banking platform becomes the most accessible crypto-banking solution on the market.