Hong Kong’s monetary regulator, the Securities and Futures Fee (SFC) has vowed to step up efforts to fight unregulated cryptocurrency buying and selling platforms in its jurisdiction.
In line with a Sept. 25 announcement, the SFC stated it’ll publish an inventory of all licensed, deemed licensed, closing down and application-pending digital asset buying and selling platforms (VATPs) to higher assist members of the general public determine doubtlessly unregulated VATPs doing enterprise in Hong Kong.
The SFC stated it’ll additionally maintain a devoted record of “suspicious VATPs” which shall be featured in an simply accessible and outstanding a part of the regulators’ web site.
The transfer follows the continued JPEX crypto trade scandal which has been accused of selling its companies to Hong Kong residents regardless of not having utilized for a license within the nation.
It is estimated to have a monetary fallout of round $178 million. On the time of publication, native police have obtained greater than 2,200 complaints from affected customers of the trade.
A complete of 11 individuals together with crypto influencers, YouTubers, and staff of the allegedly fraudulent crypto trade have been taken into custody for questioning.
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In an announcement, the SFC stated the ensuing fallout from JPEX “highlights the dangers of coping with unregulated VATPs and the necessity for correct regulation to keep up market confidence.”
The regulators added that it might be working with native police to ascertain a devoted channel for residents to share info on suspicious exercise and potential authorized breaches by VATPs, in addition to higher investigating the JPEX incident to assist “convey the wrong-doers to justice.”
Since Hong Kong regulators launched the brand new VATP licencing regime on June 1, solely two cryptocurrency buying and selling platforms — Hashkey and OSL Digital — have obtained a licence that permits them to offer service to retail clients.
Regardless of the current disaster, the SFC famous that it had “lengthy seen the potential advantages” provided to monetary markets by cryptocurrencies and different digital belongings. The regulator defined that it had additionally recognized a lot of dangers related crypto belongings together with money-laundering and investor safety considerations.
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