Hong Kong requires all exchanges applying for licence not to have mainland Chinese users and to sign a letter of commitment, which has led to a large number of platforms withdrawing their applications.

PANews reported on June 1 that Binance, OKX, HTX, Bybit Gate and others have withdrawn their applications for Hong Kong licenses. Wu said that the reason is that the Hong Kong SFC requires all applicants for virtual asset trading platform licenses to sign a letter of commitment, promising that none of their entities can have mainland Chinese users in any region. This requirement makes it impossible for traditional offshore exchanges to meet. OKX tried to form an industry alliance to oppose this requirement but failed. However, industry insiders said that the withdrawn entities can apply again after updating the legal entity or framework in the future, but they should not be able to apply using brands similar to offshore exchanges.

According to previous news, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission updated the list of virtual asset trading platforms. According to the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance, 11 platforms including HKbitEX, PantherTrade, Accumulus, DFX Labs, Bixin.com, xWhale, YAX, Bullish, Crypto.com, WhaleFin, and Matrixport HK were considered to have been licensed; only 6 platforms including BGE, HKVAX, VDX, bitV, HKX, and bitcoinworld were left on the application list without being considered to have been licensed.