According to official data from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), Bybit Exchange has officially submitted its Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) license application on January 31 this year. Currently, there are 14 companies in the process of applying for the license.
In addition to Interactive Brokers obtaining regulatory approval in Hong Kong to provide virtual asset trading to retail investors, the SFC has also disclosed a list of five other “suspicious” cryptocurrency exchanges.
Bybit, which has submitted its license application to the SFC, has registered its company name as “Spark Fintech Limited” according to public SFC records. If approved, this license will allow the platform to offer virtual currency trading services to Hong Kong investors.
As per SFC data, the two virtual asset trading platforms that have already received formal licenses from the SFC are HashKey Exchange and OSL Exchange.
There are currently 14 companies applying for the Hong Kong VASP license, including Bybit. One of the more well-known companies in this group 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 transitional period for license applications. If the SFC considers that existing virtual asset trading platforms meet the criteria for being granted a license (with the license application to be submitted by February 29, 2024), these platforms will automatically be regarded as licensed from June 1, 2024, until their license application is approved, withdrawn, or rejected.
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 transitional arrangement.