According to official data from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), Bybit Exchange officially submitted a VASP license application on January 31st of this year and is currently one of the 14 companies applying for the license.
(Introduction:
Interactive Brokers, a brokerage firm, has obtained regulatory approval in Hong Kong to provide retail investors with virtual asset trading.)
(Background:
In addition to JPEX, the SFC has disclosed a list of five other “suspicious” cryptocurrency exchanges.)
Another company has joined the list of companies that have submitted applications for the Virtual Asset Trading Platform (VASP) license to the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) in Hong Kong. Bybit officially submitted its license application on January 31st of this year.
According to publicly available information from the SFC, the company name submitted by Bybit Exchange is “Spark Fintech Limited”. If successfully obtained, the license will allow the platform to provide virtual currency trading services to Hong Kong investors.
Status of Hong Kong VASP License Applications
According to SFC data, the virtual asset trading platforms that have officially been licensed by the SFC are HashKey Exchange and OSL Exchange.
There are currently 14 companies applying for the Hong Kong VASP license. Apart from Bybit, another well-known company is the Hong Kong subsidiary of OKX, which submitted its application in mid-November last year.
The SFC previously stated that the period from “June 1, 2023 to May 31, 2024” is the license application transition period. If the SFC considers the existing virtual asset trading platforms to meet the conditions for being granted a license (with license applications to be submitted by February 29, 2024), these platforms will be automatically treated as being licensed from June 1, 2024 until their license applications are approved, withdrawn, or rejected.
Source: Securities and Futures Commission, Hong Kong
Virtual Asset Trading Platforms Not Operating in Hong Kong Before 6/1
For virtual asset trading platforms that were not operating in Hong Kong before June 1, 2023, the SFC warns that these platforms are not eligible to participate in the transition arrangement.
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