It turns out that Hong Kong cryptocurrency exchange licenses are costing applicants millions of dollars. This is significantly less than the $25 million seen a year ago.
Livio Wang, HashKey Group’s chief operating officer, told the Financial Times that cryptocurrency exchange licenses would be “not necessarily tens of millions of dollars, but certainly tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars (millions of US dollars).” ” He explained, “The costs for the preparation stage of permit review materials are different from the operation stage.” He further said:
“In the case of Hashikiki, which is already in operation, the investment in the entire exchange truly amounts to tens of millions of dollars, but it is not expected to be that much for a platform that is still in the licensing stage.”
Since June 1, Hong Kong regulators have banned all unlicensed cryptocurrency exchanges in the East Asian city, with violators facing criminal charges. Currently, there are more than 11 companies designated as ‘deemed licensed’. As of last year, there were only two officially licensed exchanges: HashKey and OSL.
Wang said in an interview that since its launch, HashKey Exchange has now managed $500 million in user assets and facilitated $440 billion in cumulative transactions. “The number of active customers this week is up 267% compared to last week, and the number of newly activated customers has more than tripled,” the blockchain executive said.
Last April, HashKey followed Coinbase’s example and established a global exchange based in Bermuda for international users. Unlike Hong Kong-based companies that were the first to obtain operating licenses in the region, HashKey Global does not provide services to Hong Kong, China, the United States, and many other regions.
Despite existing regulations, the implementation of Hong Kong’s exchange licensing system stalled last year as unlicensed cryptocurrency exchange JPEX succeeded in siphoning $166 million from investors before collapsing in September 2023. Since then, residents have become more skeptical. Cryptocurrency investment.
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