Three exchanges carry NIM, all priced in USDT, and a third of the largest crypto markets cannot reach any of them.
24 hours, CoinGecko tracked markets
NIM has no BTC pair left anywhere, so every market prices it in USDT.
Singapore reached NIM only through CoinEx and now has no venue.
Ranked by crypto owners, scored against the three live venues
The four shut out are China, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada.
As published by each venue. These change without notice.
| Venue | Pairs | 24h volume | Share | Blocked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MEXCThe deepest book | NIM/USDT | $13,204 | 54.4% | United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Singapore, mainland China, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, North Korea, Cuba, Sudan, Iran, the Russian held regions of UkrainePlus anywhere under EU or OFAC sanctions, or on the FATF high risk list |
| CoinExDelisted NIM on 5 August 2026, so it is no longer counted | NIM/USDT, NIM/BTC | no trades since 5 Aug | n/a | United States, Canada, United Kingdom, the entire European Union and EEA, Switzerland, mainland China, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, North Korea, Iran, CubaThe EU was added on 25 June 2026. Moot now that the book is dead, but it is why Europe never reached this venue. |
| KuCoinThe old default for NIM traders | NIM/USDT | $2,860 | 11.8% | United States, Canada, United Kingdom retail, Singapore, mainland China, Hong Kong, Thailand, and sanctioned statesPleaded guilty in January 2025, then permanently barred from the US by a March 2026 CFTC order. Canada runs on a standing Ontario Securities Commission order. |
| GateWas under $400 a day on 9 August, now a third of all NIM volume | NIM/USDT | $8,217 | 33.8% | United States, Canada, United Kingdom, mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, France, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Malta, Malaysia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Myanmar, Uzbekistan, and sanctioned statesOver 30 named jurisdictions. Gate stopped onboarding EEA users to the global platform in March 2025 and routes them to Gate Europe, licensed in Malta since September 2025. Whether that entity lists NIM is unverified. |
| CoinSpotA broker, not an order book, so it never shows in tracked volume | NIM/AUD | not tracked | n/a | Everyone outside AustraliaThe only direct fiat pair for NIM anywhere |
All three venues are open in 29 of the 40 largest markets. These are the 11 that are not.
Owner counts are Triple-A's 2023 table. Access was checked today.
The 40 largest crypto populations, 427.6m owners between them. A third of them cannot reach a single NIM order book.
The two main counts disagree by about 100m owners, and far harder per country.
Triple-A 2023 in blue, the 2026 compilation in green
Two independent counts of the same thing
Gridlines at zero, 400m and 800m owners. Triple-A has not published since 2024.
The Philippines is the tell. One source says 7m, the other 26.6m, because the second counts internet users rather than population.
Triple-A's 2024 report drops to a top 30 by rate with no owner counts, and the 2026 figures in circulation blend surveys. One older dataset measured the same way beats four newer ones that are not comparable.
| Where you live | Venues open | Liquidity | Best route | Ceiling |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States, Canada, Hong Kong, ChinaChina alone is 78m owners, the second largest crypto population on earth | None of the three | 0% | Stablecoin into the Nimiq Wallet. Above the cap, a swap desk, terms below. China: where local law allows it at all | $1,000 / 30 days |
| United Kingdom | None of the three | 0% | Same, via an FCA registered venue. The desks do not take UK users either | $1,000 / 30 days |
| Singapore | None of the three | 0% | The wallet route only, since CoinEx died on 5 August | Exchange limits |
| North Korea, Iran, Cuba, Syria, Sudan | None | 0% | Nothing on this page applies. Every venue and swap desk screens these lists | n/a |
| Where you live | Venues open | Liquidity | Best route | Ceiling |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| European Union | MEXC and KuCoin | 66% | Fiat to USDT on MEXC or KuCoin, then to NIM there. Gate carries a third of NIM volume and does not serve the EU. Gate Europe is licensed, its NIM listing unverified | Exchange limits |
| Kazakhstan | KuCoin and Gate | 45.6% | Gate carries most of it now, with KuCoin behind | Exchange limits |
| Thailand | All but KuCoin | 88.2% | MEXC or Gate | Exchange limits |
| Australia | All three, plus CoinSpot | 100% | AUD straight to NIM on CoinSpot, the only direct fiat pair in the world | Account limits |
All three venues open in every row below, and exchange limits are the only ceiling.
| Where you live | Liquidity | Best route |
|---|---|---|
| Switzerland | 100% | Fiat to USDT on MEXC or KuCoin, then USDT to NIM. Gate works here too: Switzerland is outside the EEA, so the March 2025 withdrawal never applied |
| India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines | 100% | Fiat to USDT on MEXC, then USDT to NIM in the same place |
| Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina | 99 to 100% | Same, or peer to peer for the first leg where banks block exchanges |
| Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Ethiopia | 100% | Peer to peer for USDT is common, then USDT to NIM on MEXC |
| Ukraine, Russia, Turkey | 100% | Same as above. Occupied Ukrainian regions are blocked everywhere |
| South Korea, Japan | 100% | Open on the venues own lists, though local rules push people to registered domestic exchanges |
| Desk | United States | United Kingdom | What it takes |
|---|---|---|---|
| FastspotThe swap built into the Nimiq Wallet | Works, terms unclear | Open | €1,000 per 30 days without ID. Completes from the US, reported first hand |
| ChangeNOW | Only with an account | No | Account plus ID from the US. No UK carve out |
| ChangeHero | No | Not listed | Bars the US and all its territories |
| SimpleSwap, StealthEX, SwapSpace, Changelly, Swapzone | Not checked | Terms not read yet | |
Fastspot moved about $258 a day in the fourteen days to 11 August, one per cent of NIM liquidity.
This page sends blocked markets to Fastspot. In the fourteen days to 11 August 2026 it moved $3,616 of NIM across 33 swaps, against roughly $24,000 a day on the three exchanges. The escape hatch is real and it is tiny.
SimpleSwap, StealthEX, SwapSpace, Changelly and Swapzone are named on the Nimiq buy page. Their terms are not read yet.
Fastspot. Atomic swaps inside the Nimiq Wallet, operated by Inuit International Operations Ltd in the UK. The NIM and BTC legs are hash time locked contracts, so nobody holds your coins, and the terms never name a barred country. The euro leg runs through OASIS and TEN31 Bank, is custodial, and is SEPA only.
Up to €1,000 per rolling 30 days with no identity check, full KYC with TEN31 above that.
The terms never define "Prohibited Jurisdiction" and never state a bar. The clause that should name who is barred points at the paragraph about wallet keys instead.
One clause forbids US Persons from using a VPN to disguise their location, which implies a block it never spells out. There is no account to open and no balance anyone holds, so there is nothing to geofence. Treat the terms as unsettled, not as a bar.
Figures are community reported from the nimiq.cafe Fastspot dashboard, not an endpoint this page can re-check.
ChangeNOW. Clause 11.1 says do not use it from the US or UK, then carves out the US "after account creation". The UK gets no carve out.
The Pro terms name 41 US jurisdictions whose registered and verified users are routed through third party processors. Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and Washington are not on that list.
So it is an account plus ID, not the no signup swap it is sold as.
ChangeHero. Section 5.1.2 names the United States and all its territories a Prohibited Jurisdiction, next to Cuba, Iran and North Korea. It adds that ChangeHero "makes no attempt to operate in Prohibited Jurisdictions". Ontario, Japan, Bangladesh and Bolivia are on the same list.
Six markets holding 143 million crypto owners are refused by all three venues: who they are, and why licensing rather than sanctions closes them.
Buying is only half of reach: NIMmesh, now in alpha, sends a payment where no exchange and no internet reaches.
The largest buyer on these books is Nimiq's treasury, $73,921 of NIM in July alone, and where that NIM ended up can be checked on chain.
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