Hong Kong authorities set a specific time frame for verifying the validity of all exchange sites within the country. Hong Kong authorities had set a deadline of February 29 for that, and that deadline expired yesterday. Hong Kong authorities have asked various crypto exchanges to apply for accreditation and have said they will grant accreditation after vetting their applications. It even set a deadline for those who failed to apply. All crypto exchanges and trading platforms that fail to file license applications with the regulator by February 29 must cease their business in Hong Kong by May 31. Since Hong Kong gave time till 29th of last month and those who have not applied after that. Those crypto exchanges have stopped accepting license applications and soon all non-compliant trading platforms will have to close their businesses locally. And for that time has been fixed till 31st of May.
Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) earlier announced that exchanges that fail to apply for a license must cease trading by May 31, even though they may be fined later. I wrote a post about this a long time ago in this community where I mentioned these things that the authorities declared a muse. However, the regulatory authorities recently said that all crypto exchanges in the country and those that have failed to file license applications must cease business by May 31 this year.
The Hong Kong SFC had previously indicated that the application would not be upheld. This is because when exchanges apply for accreditation and licensing, they are carefully vetted by the Hong Kong authorities and subsequently approved. However, the SFC urged investors using virtual asset trading platforms to speed up preparations who have already obtained or applied for a license. And along with that they called upon such a player to migrate as well.
But the important thing here is that the SFC has officially licensed two crypto trading operators in Hong Kong. Among these two operators are OSL Digital Securities which got its license in 2020 and the other is Hashkey Exchange which got its license in 2022. So far 22 crypto trading platforms have applied for licenses within the specified period after being asked to apply for licenses by the regulatory body.
The SFC's previous opt-in regime for crypto trading platforms including the four exchanges that applied under it. In addition, four other exchanges - Huobi HK, Mix, BitHarbor and Ambrar - applied for the license. However, after applying for licences, they withdrew or returned their applications. The SFC will also maintain a list of publicly traded crypto platforms, the authority announced, and exchanges that have not applied have been told to cease trading within the country by a May deadline or face fines. However, exchanges that ultimately fail to apply must be closed by law. It aims to inform citizens about the associated risks.
The time frame for the close-down was set by the Hong Kong Exchange Regulatory Commission. After a certain period of time Hong Kong will limit the performance of the exchange and stop all marketing activities in the region. Therefore, the SFC will publish a list of licensed crypto exchanges that will be licensed by the Hong Kong SFC from June 1 this year until May 31st. But the authority had earlier said that the application itself will not be valid as their application and documents must be in order and even after the authorities scrutinize their application, it will be confirmed whether the application will be valid. However, once the exchanges that have applied for accreditation are licensed by the Hong Kong SFC, those crypto exchanges can trade bitcoins to retail investors. Various altcoins and stablecoins are currently being reviewed by the SFC for trading approval.
Hong Kong-based crypto exchange BitForex. And the exchange site was out of touch recently after suspending withdrawals for at least three days. Also this exchange site has not yet updated the X account he has since May 2023. However even they have problems with their telegram which is still not updated even they stopped withdrawal of customers for three days some time back without any notice. However, several users later shared a pop-up screen saying they were blocked from accessing the company's website.
However, Hong Kong authorities have issued a directive to all exchanges, especially those that have not applied for a license, to cease trading in the country by a certain date, and to publish a star list for exchanges that will be licensed. However, if you want to know more about it, you can read this news.