- Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has banned two cryptocurrency websites citing fraudulent users.
- HongKongDAO and BitCuped were blocked after joint efforts by police and internet providers.
- The two incidents come not long after investors lost more than HKD 1.6 billion ($204 million) on JPEX and Hounax.
Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has reportedly banned two cryptocurrency websites for allegedly defrauding investors.
The South China Morning Post reported Wednesday that the HongKongDAO and BitCuped sites were blacklisted by the securities watchdog after authorities were informed that they were misleading investors. It was reported that .
HongKDAO promotes “HKD” token
According to the SCMP, Hong Kong regulators discovered that HongKongDAO had tricked users into purchasing tokens called “HKD.” The platform also provided users with false assurances that it had applied for licenses from the SFC and the government.
HongKongDAO has reportedly been on the SFC’s radar since November 24 and was found to have two chat groups. The Chinese chat group had over 10,000 members, and the English chat group had over 1,700 members. The project ostensibly promoted HKD as a token with enormous market value.
Regulators worked with police and internet service providers to block the HongKongDAO website. The SFC also sent cease-and-desist notices to cryptocurrency trading platforms, asking them to stop trading tokens linked to HongKongDAO.
BitCuped misrepresented a Hong Kong exchange official as its owner.
Meanwhile, BitCuped misled investors by falsely listing Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) Chairman Laura Cha and CEO Nicolas Aguzin as platform affiliates. The SFC noted that neither individual had any connection to BitCuped.
The site misled investors by claiming to offer cryptocurrency and stock trading services, regulators said. It was blacklisted on November 10th.
Both sites were banned for scamming investors, but the SFC did not disclose how many people were victims or the total amount of losses. A police investigation is ongoing, SMCP said.
Hong Kong regulators and law enforcement agencies have recently been stepping up efforts to prevent fraud, such as those involving cryptocurrency platforms Hounax and JPEX. In both incidents, fraudsters stole more than HK$1.6 billion ($204 million) from victims.
Last August, the SFC warned cryptocurrency platforms and exchanges against misleading investors with false claims about their registration status. The regulator also warned suppliers against offering products and services that are not registered or approved by the commission.