HashKey Group’s blockchain member obtains full Hong Kong crypto trading license
Quick Take
- Hong Kong’s regulator granted a blockchain firm of the HashKey Group full operating licensing.
- The Hong Kong authorities have expressed an intention to develop an international crypto hub.
Hong Kong’s financial supervisor, the Securities and Futures Commission, granted Hash Blockchain, a member of the HashKey Group, full licensing to provide crypto asset trading services. This allows the firm to operate a virtual asset trading platform, according to a news release sent to The Block. Hash Blockchain will host a crypto trading platform.
The digital asset-focused financial firm is the second crypto service provider in Hong Kong to secure a full set of digital asset licenses, after completing a period of probation that began in April when it received an in-principle license. Investment holding company BC Group’s OSL digital asset platform earned a full package in 2020.
The licensing follows the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau’s previously announced intention of developing Hong Kong into an international crypto hub.
“The Government, in conjunction with the financial regulators, are working towards providing a facilitating environment for promoting sustainable and responsible development of the [virtual asset] sector in Hong Kong,” an official statement said on Oct. 31.
“We are ready to calibrate our legal and regulatory regime as part of our effort to provide the aforesaid facilitating environment having regard to the evolving nature and innovative approach of VA,” the statement added.
“We are delighted to have received the licenses given the backdrop of this positive announcement,” Michael Lee, executive president of the HashKey Group, said in the news release. “This enables us to provide regulated and compliant virtual asset trading services as we continue to help build the financial, technological and service infrastructure to facilitate and contribute to the rapid growth and the long-term development of the ecosystem.”
HashKey’s venture arm, HashKey Capital, got permission from Hong Kong authorities in September to manage a portfolio of digital assets.
More recently, HashKey Capital also received a license from Singapore's Monetary Authority to operate there.
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