Effective June 1st, the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong has laid down a new regulation for exchanging currencies with a blockchain. Unfortunately, despite the advances and innovations that have occurred since the traditional financial markets started making the first alterations, only two Crypto platforms, OSL Digital Securities and Hash Blockchain, were the only ones to gain license to operate under these new amendments. This is a development that shows SFC striving to enhance the surveillance, and safety of the rapidly growing digital asset market.
These have led to the development of measures to regulate their operations which have necessarily brought a change in the working environment. Notable crypto exchanges include OKX and Gate. hk. have also decided to shut down their Hong Kong operations on account of halting which again highlights the fact and intensity of new regulations.
Excluding the licensed trading platforms, 17 other online trading platforms are still seeking SFC licensing. Some of them are Hong Kong BGE Ltd.; Hong Kong Digital Asset EX Ltd.; Flying Hippo Technologies Ltd.; Bitcoin World Technology Ltd., Hong Kong Virtual Asset Exchange Ltd; Foris DAX HK Ltd.; Panthertrade (Hong Kong) Ltd.; Accumulus GBA Technology (Hong Kong) Co. Ltd.; / DFx Labs Company Ltd.; / Newbx Limited; Thousand Whales Technology (BVI) Ltd.; Highblock Ltd; and YAX (Hong Kong) Whalefin Markets Ltd.; hi5 (Hong Kong) Ltd.; Ltd. Bullish (GI) Ltd.; and Victory Fintech Company Ltd.
These are attributes of a relatively young industry where more countries are coming up with regulations to reign in the use of digital currencies in the global market. It can be said that the establishment of the SFC was rather aggressive for the following reasons; The efforts of the SFC to campaign the market in an effort to make it efficient, just, and dependable to protect the interest of investors. As a result, the SFC aims at implementing nearer licensing thresholds along with the exclusion of potential risks indispensable for the formation of a more reliable and integrated system of cryptocurrency trading.
Also read: UK Minister Warns Against Using Overly Excessive Regulation to Stifle Crypto Innovation
