Regulatory licenses for Hong Kong-based crypto exchanges are currently costing applicants several million US dollars – a figure that is significantly lower than the $25 million that was being demanded just a year ago.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Livio Wang, the COO of HashKey Group, stated that the crypto exchange licenses were “not cheap, tens of millions of dollars, but tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars though [certainly several million in USD].
“As for HashKey, which is already launched, our investment in the entire exchange sphere is indeed tens of millions of dollars, but it will not and cannot be so much for a platform that is still in the licensing phase.”
Regulators in Hong Kong have effectively banned all crypto exchanges operating without an approved license since June 1, which is punishable by criminal charges. At present, there are over 11 firms that have been given the label of “deemed to be licensed.” As of last year, there are only two fully licensed exchanges: The two major players in this industry include HashKey and OSL.
During the interview with Wang, he disclosed that HashKey Exchange currently holds $500 million of users’ funds, while users have made $440 billion worth of trades cumulatively.
It transpired that the number of activated customers this week was 267% higher than last week, and the number of new customers has tripled,” said the head of the blockchain department.
in April, HashKey copied Coinbase’s model by opening a global exchange based in Bermuda for global users. Other restricted areas of operation include Hong Kong and China for its Hong Kong-based competitor won the first license for operating in the region, the United States, and several other countries.
The efforts of implementing the exchange licensing regime in the Hong Kong territory were halted in the previous year owing to circumstances where an unlisted crypto exchange, JPEX, was able to defraud investors for $166 million and shut down in September 2023.
