jakiro
Author: Frank
On June 1, the transition period of the Hong Kong virtual asset trading platform license system officially ended, and the result made the crypto community “exclamation of disappointment”.Previously, trading platforms that were hopeless to obtain a license have announced their withdrawal from the Hong Kong market one after another.
Although only two institutions have officially obtained licenses, the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission has also updated the list of 11 platforms that are “received as licensees” and the 6 platforms that are still applying for the list.As of June 3, PANews discovered that the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission had removed the list of “being treated as licensed” and merged it into a “list of applicants for virtual asset trading platforms”, and issued a reminder that “the CSRC urged investors to only obtain the CSRCBuy and sell virtual assets on the licensed virtual asset trading platform.
The CSRC reminds investors that applicants who are regarded as licensed virtual asset trading platforms have not been officially licensed by the CSRC, and this move may be to avoid misunderstandings.
Overall, most of the existing applicants and licensed platforms are Hong Kong local financial institutions and companies with mainland China resources background.Almost all large crypto-native exchanges have withdrawn from the competition for Hong Kong licenses.
2 licensed trading platforms
HashKey Exchange: Universal Exchange
Hash Blockchain Limited is a company belonging to HashKey Group, headquartered in Hong Kong.The investor behind HashKey Group is Wanxiang Blockchain Laboratory, which is part of Wanxiang Group’s strategic layout in the blockchain industry.
The founders of Wanxiang Group, Lu Guanqiu, Jack Ma and Zong Qinghou, are known as the three leading figures of Zhejiang Businessmen.On May 31, HashKey Exchange announced that it had obtained the AMLO license of the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission (a virtual asset trading platform under the “Anti-Money Laundering Ordinance”, indicating that HashKey Group has become a Hong Kong virtual asset full-licensed platform.
OSL Exchange: Same Investor as Bitget
OSL Exchange is the first licensed virtual asset exchange in Hong Kong. The company behind it is OSL Group, a Hong Kong-based fintech company focusing on providing blockchain technology solutions and digital asset services.Its executive team comes to well-known financial giants such as HSBC, Morgan Stanley, and Accenture.
OSL Group was previously named BC Technology Group. In January 2024, BGX Group subscribed new shares of OSL Group worth HK$710 million and became the largest shareholder of OSL with 29.97%.The actual controller of BGX Group is also one of the investors of Bitget Exchange.
11 licensed platforms
HKbitEX: Founded by former Hong Kong Stock Exchange Executive
Hong Kong Digital Asset EX Limited (HKDAEx), founded by many former senior executives of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, including former managing director Gao Han.
The Group’s business scope includes securities and commodity trading, fund and asset management, Metauniu and Web 3 technology, transaction registration and clearing, trust and asset custody, fund establishment and management, and wealth management and family office services.HKFAEx Group has completed several cases of converting collectibles into virtual assets and promoted copyright NFT as an investable asset class.The group is also a major shareholder of the Nasdaq-listed company Oriental Culture Group (OCG.US).
HKbitEX has been approved by the Hong Kong Securities and Exchange Commission for the principle of licenses issued by the Virtual Asset Trading Platform (VATP) of Class 1 Regulated Activities (Securities Trading) and Class 7 Regulated Activities (Providing Automated Trading Services).
PantherTrade: Futu’s platform
PantherTrade is a subsidiary of Futu Holdings, headquartered in Hong Kong.
The company focuses on the development and operation of virtual asset trading platforms.Panthertrade has recruited team members with expertise in crypto and investment fields, such as Chen Zhihu, former investment director of Huobi Asset Management (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd., and Fang Xingzhi, the initial director, has a background in JD Securities Co., Ltd.
Accumulus: under the account of Tianjin’s major taxpayer cloud
Accumulus was established on September 2, 2022 and was established by Cloud Account Technology (China) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Cloud Account).Cloud Account is an Internet platform that provides services to new forms of employment workers (freelancers). According to official statements, it has provided services to more than 83 million people in 120 countries and regions, with a total revenue of RMB 108.4 billion in 2023.In 2021, the cloud account ranked first in Tianjin’s private enterprises with a tax payment of 3.366 billion yuan.
The cloud account shares a database with the Tianjin Public Security Bureau and establishes cooperation with the latter in tracing pyramid schemes, illegal fundraising, gambling, drug crimes, smuggling, trafficking of women and children.Yang Hui, chairman of Cloud Account, is also a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. In recent years, many leaders have investigated the company.Since 2021, Cloud Account has accepted annual research projects commissioned by the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and the State Audit Office six times.
DFX Labs: Executives from BGE and HashKey
DFX Labs Company Limited is a professional virtual asset service provider based in Hong Kong, established on May 2, 2023.Simon Au Yeung, COO, DFX Labs, graduated from Wharton.Previously, he served as CEO of Blockchain Finance and BGE.The company’s CTO David Hui was once the technical director of HashKey Group.
Bixin.com: An old crypto company
NewBX Limited is a private company registered in Hong Kong on 2 August 2019.The company behind it is Bixin Group. The formerly known as HaoBTC on the Bixin.com platform, founded in 2014, is one of the old cryptocurrency exchanges.
Bixin Group currently engages in mining machine research and development, manufacturing, mining operations, custodial wallets, MPC wallets, hardware wallets, trading platforms, public chains, venture capital, etc.Its founder Wu Gang began to come into contact with Bitcoin in 2009 and is a hard-core Bitcoin player.
xWhale: Sina’s Huasheng Securities is a major shareholder
Thousand Whales Technology (BVI) Limited was registered and established in Hong Kong on April 11, 2022. It is a virtual asset exchange invested by Sina’s Huasheng Capital Group.Co-invested by Huasheng Capital Group, Longling Capital and Vcredit (HKG: 2003).Longling Capital is an equity investment company founded by the famous angel investor Cai Wensheng.
YAX: Tiger Securities Incubation
YAX (Hong Kong) Limited was established on March 16, 2023.The platform behind the company is YAX, a global cryptocurrency trading platform, which provides virtual asset trading, custody and other services.YAX is a platform incubated by employees of Tiger Brokers, which is backed by smartphone maker Xiaomi.
Bullish: EOS development company Block.one
Bullish (GI) Limited is a company established by Block.one that mainly operates the Bullish exchange.Block.one is a company that develops and supports EOSIO open source software.The Bullish exchange was backed by Block.one and its investors and received a capital injection including 200,000 EOS at launch.
Crypto.com: Singapore Compliance Exchange
Foris DAX HK Limited is a cryptocurrency trading company registered in Hong Kong, established on August 22, 2018.
The platform behind the company, Crypto.com, is a Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange.Currently, there are more than 100 million users and have obtained MAS licenses in Singapore.
WhaleFin: Amber
Whalefin Markets Limited is a Hong Kong-based company focusing on the trading and management of cryptocurrencies and digital assets.The company is a digital asset platform operated by Amber Group, founded in 2017 and headquartered in Hong Kong.
The company focuses on digital wealth management and cryptocurrency liquidity solutions, providing comprehensive products and services to high-net-worth investors and institutions, including transactions, asset management, consulting and research.In February 2022, Amber Group received a US$200 million financing led by Temasek, with Sequoia China, Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures and Tiger Global Management.
Matrixport HK: Wu Jihan’s platform
Flying Hippo Technologies Limited was registered on May 22, 2019 and headquartered in Wan Chai, Hong Kong. The company behind it, Matrixport, is a Singapore blockchain financial services platform established in 2019, founded by Jihan Wu.The company manages more than $10 billion in assets and has more than $5 billion in monthly transactions.
6 platforms are still applying for list
BGE: The major shareholder may be the son of the “King of Gambling in the High Seas”
Hong Kong BGE Co., Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of HKE Holdings Limited (HKE Holdings Limited, stock code: 1726), a Hong Kong main board listed company.According to the official website, its main business includes providing software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions, brokerage services, automatic trading platforms and insurance custody services, which are specifically for institutions and professional investors.Its parent company HKE is involved in multiple business areas, especially in fintech and digital asset services.In addition to the virtual asset trading platform, the company also engages in traditional engineering and construction businesses.
In recent years, the company has focused on expanding its digital asset and blockchain platform businesses.Applying for a virtual asset exchange does not seem to have brought much stock price stimulus to the company, with HKE Holdings Limited’s share price down about 5.85% from the beginning of June 2024.
Its executive chairman He Wenlian is currently the executive vice chairman of Hong Kong Volunteer Federation Co., Ltd., executive chairman of Hong Kong Telecom Holdings Co., Ltd., chairman of Yongrong International Co., Ltd., vice chairman and secretary-general of Youth Inspirational Fund, Donghua Group Director Hospital Group, Hong Kong Youth FederationExecutive Director of the Association and Member of the All-China Youth Federation.HK BGE once hired Thor Chan as CEO, who is the former CEO and co-founder of the bankrupt crypto exchange AAX; HK BGE’s parent company HKE Holdings has a market value of approximately RMB 2.3 billion, and the company’s chairman and major shareholder is Lian Hao.It is speculated that he is the son of Lian Zhuozhao, known as the “King of Gambling in the High Seas”, but it has not been confirmed.
HKVAX: Founded by CITIC Futures and HSBC Executives
Hong Kong Virtual Asset Exchange Limited was founded in 2019 by a local entrepreneur in Hong Kong. The company plans to introduce new product categories such as security token issuance (STO) and invest in Web3.
HKVAX’s business includes providing over-the-counter trading (OTC) brokerage services, institutional-level trading platforms and 100% insurance coverage asset custody services to professional investors.It mainly serves professional investors including venture capital, brokerage companies, high net worth individuals, institutional investors, asset management companies, quantitative funds, private equity and hedge funds.
In addition, HKVAX official website stated that it has obtained principled approval from the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission (SFC) for regulated activities in Class 1 (Securities Trading) and Class 7 (Providing automated trading services).Co-founder Wu Weiliang was once the managing director of CITIC Futures International Department.Co-founder Huo Zhaoliang has served as the head of anti-money laundering compliance for HSBC Hong Kong and Asia.
VDX: Under Hong Kong Victory Securities
Victory Fintech Company Limited was established on August 5, 2021. The company behind it is Hong Kong Victory Securities. In 2018, Victory Securities established a VDX team to specialize in the development of digital currency trading systems.
The company’s executive directors include Gao Juan, chairman of the Hong Kong Securities Association.At the same time, he holds the China Securities Regulatory Commission’s licenses No. 1 (virtual asset trading), No. 4 (virtual asset consulting service) and No. 9 (virtual asset asset management service).Zhou Lele, managing director of VDX, co-founder and chief commercial officer of Victory Securities, said that he hopes that after obtaining a CSRC license, the revenue brought by VDX can account for 20% of Victory Securities’ income level within three years.
bitV: Participate in the launch of HK$1 billion ETF liquid fund
HighBlock Limited is a Hong Kong-based company established on October 27, 2023 with limited public information.In May this year, the company jointly launched a HK$1 billion Hong Kong ETF liquidity fund with LD Capital and Antalpha Ventures.
HKX: Under the Web3 Crypto Banking Service Platform
hi5 (Hong Kong) Limited is a private limited company established on October 28, 2019, headquartered in Hong Kong.The company behind it is hi.com, a platform engaged in Web3 crypto banking, co-founded by Sean Rach, former chief marketing officer of Crypto.com, with hi.com employing more than 120 employees in its offices in Asia and Europe.The number of registrations exceeded 3.5 million.The hi.com platform has currently issued tokens $HI, with a current market value of approximately US$2.4 million.
Bitcoinworld: Under Hong Kong Stocks Yuanshi Company
Bitcoin World Technology Limited is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BYTE META (08645.HK) and has currently obtained licenses No. 1 and No. 7.BYTE META was originally named Mi Chong Yuan Universe and was renamed in 2024.According to media reports, in August 2023, its subsidiary Mi Chong Internet (Wuhan) Co., Ltd. was frozen by the court’s execution assets for suspected pyramid schemes.
Regarding the current Hong Kong Stock Exchange license issuance, Hong Kong Legislative Council member Chiu Dagen commented, “Most of the remaining applicants are small in scale, some lack industry experience, and some are traditional financial institutions trying to get involved in VATP (virtual asset trading platform) business, andNot deeply engaged in the Web3 field. Under strict supervision, many industry insiders are worried that even if the operator is approved for a license, it will be difficult to continue to make profits.”
Regarding the market’s issue of many native encryption platforms launching Hong Kong license applications, Weng Xiaoqi, CEO of Hashkey Exchange, who has obtained the license, revealed to the media that many people in charge of withdrawing from the application for the license have expressed their disappointment.
Weng Xiaoqi believes that “the root cause behind this status quo. According to market observations and evaluations, the CSRC may not be equipped with enough personnel to conduct a comprehensive review of all Native Web3 institutions. It is optimistic that after demarcating the water level of risk control, supervision will enter a new stage.Now, the “stable and prudent development period” of “stable and prudent development” has ended in phases and entered a development period.” In addition, some trading platforms that have withdrawn their applications said that rectification is underway and plans to resume Hong Kong business after obtaining a license in the future.
