Bitget has decided to permanently exit the Hong Kong market just seven months after establishing a dedicated regional division. In an official statement released on November 13, 2023, the crypto exchange disclosed that its Hong Kong division, BitgetX, is set to cease operations within a month and discontinue all cryptocurrency-related services to comply with regulatory requirements.
Bitget urged users to withdraw all their crypto assets from its “BitgetX.hk” platform before December 13, 2023.
“After this date, the BitgetX website will no longer be accessible and you will not be able to manage or access your assets on BitgetX,” the statement noted.
The exchange would halt the acceptance of new users starting from November 13, and only withdrawals would be available from now until its closure. It also noted that the users must withdraw assets before the deadline because once the platform is closed, these assets will not be accessible.
Bitget noted that it dropped plans to obtain a Virtual Asset Trading Platform (VATP) licence in Hong Kong over “business and market-related considerations.”
This decision represents a reversal from Bitget’s earlier commitment to obtaining the VATP licence in compliance with Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission’s new crypto regulations, which became effective in June 2023.
The crypto exchange relocated its Hong Kong customers from its primary website, “Bitget.com,” to www.BitgetX.hk on April 24, 2023, in response to the new regulations. At the time, BitgetX operated under a transitional arrangement pending its licence approval, which the exchange had assured users it would pursue.
In a parallel development, Swiss crypto bank SEBA recently joined the list of regulated companies offering digital asset services in Hong Kong. Notably, only two crypto firms had previously obtained this distinction since the regulations were implemented, making SEBA the third.
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