Livio Weng, COO of HashKey Group, said that the withdrawal of unlicensed exchanges means that the competitive landscape of Hong Kong's virtual asset service industry has moved from experimentation to a new historical stage of full compliance. At the same time, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Ordinance (AMLO), virtual asset trading platforms that have not obtained a license or have not been "deemed to be licensed" need to stop trading and clear assets for Hong Kong customers before May 31. This move proves that the regulator has taken practical actions to encourage customers to actively return to compliant trading platforms and support the business development of licensed institutions.
Livio Weng expects that the implementation of the AMLO licensing system will make Hong Kong's virtual asset industry more rigorous and standardized, enhance the acceptance of virtual assets, and attract more institutions, especially traditional institutions, to enter the market. Hong Kong will gradually become one of the most important virtual asset markets in the Asia-Pacific region, and the relationship between Hong Kong and Crypto (cryptocurrency) will become similar to the relationship between Nasdaq and the Internet. (Jiemian News)