Hong Kong crypto exchange license applications cost less than expected: report
Hong Kong's crypto exchange licenses are reportedly costing applicants millions, down from $25 million a year ago.
Hashkey Group CEO Livio Wang said in an interview with the Financial Times that crypto exchange licenses are not necessarily worth tens of millions of dollars, but tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars. [several million in USD]He said. “Costs related to the stage of preparing license review materials are separate from the operational stage,” he explained. he said.
“For HashKey, which is currently operational, our investment in the entire cryptocurrency sector is in the tens of millions of dollars, but it is not expected to be that much for a platform that is still in the licensing phase.”
As of June 1, Hong Kong regulators have banned all unlicensed crypto exchanges in the East Asian city, with non-compliance punishable by criminal charges. There are currently over 11 organizations with the “Deemed Licensed” designation. As of last year, there are only two fully licensed exchanges, HashKey and OSL.
During the interview, Wang revealed that since the launch of the Hashkey exchange, it now manages $500 million in user assets and has facilitated $440 billion in aggregate transactions. “Our number of active customers this week exceeded last week by 267%, and our number of new active customers tripled,” the blockchain executive said.
In April, HashKey followed Coinbase's example by setting up an international exchange for international users in Bermuda. Unlike its Hong Kong-based counterpart, which won a license to operate in the region for the first time, HashKey Global does not serve Hong Kong, China, the United States and many other regions.
The release of Hong Kong's exchange licensing system last year was hampered by the fact that despite the existing rules, an unlicensed crypto exchange, JPEX, managed to defraud investors of $166 million before it collapsed in September 2023. Since then, residents have become more skeptical of crypto investing. .
Related: Matt Gox isn't ditching Bitcoin just yet, Hong Kong has launched crypto exchanges.
