Hong Kong's securities regulator announced that 11 cryptocurrency exchanges are making progress towards obtaining licenses.
Bullish and Crypto.com are two of the approved applicants listed on the Securities & Futures Commission's website. Those venues are included in the list of platforms with substantial global trading volumes.
Well-known digital asset companies like Bybit and OKX, who frequently command significant amounts of activity, withdrew their bids for permits. Binance Holdings Ltd., Coinbase Global Inc., and Kraken did not apply for the largest exchange in the world.
Crypto exchanges have until June 1st, Hong Kong time, to obtain a license or be presumed licensed. To operate and promote their services in the city, businesses must fit into the local investor group. Once the SFC is happy with their consistent compliance, they will be granted actual permits.
In late 2022, officials focused on creating a digital asset hub to rebuild Hong Kong's status as a financial center. This came after a crackdown on dissent that concerned multinational corporations and expatriate employees.
The crypto initiatives include launching Bitcoin and Ether exchange-traded funds, adding more authorized exchanges, creating a framework for stablecoins, and issuing digital bonds on tokenization platforms.
Hong Kong's success as a digital asset hub is uncertain due to the competition from cities like Dubai and Singapore. The strict regulations aim to protect investors, prevent money laundering, and stop the funding of terrorists by imposing costs for compliance and reporting obligations.
By the deadline on February 29th, almost two dozen organizations had submitted licensing applications to run cryptocurrency exchanges. HashKey Exchange and OSL Group are the two fully regulated digital asset exchanges operating in Hong Kong at the moment.
