Hong Kong Regulator to Provide Guidance for Cryptocurrency Firms in May

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The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) announced that it is preparing rules for licensing cryptocurrency exchanges and will present them as early as next month.

Bloomberg publication, citing the GeneralSFC Director Julia Leung says the new guidance and rules will provide support for cryptocurrency trading platforms that offer services to retail investors.

The rules should come into force on June 1st.As part of the development of regulatory documentation, the regulator held preliminary consultations and received over 150 different reviews and proposals from various interested companies.

The Hong Kong regulator pays special attention toanti-money laundering (AML) procedures and customer identification (KYC) processes. Note that the SFC already ensures the operation of some crypto platforms in accordance with the rules. In addition, OSL and Hashkey Group have already received licenses from the regulator.

At the beginning of the month, it was reported that the Gate.io site had filed several applications for various licenses to operate in Hong Kong at once.