Crypto exchange Bitget pulls out of Hong Kong, stops pursuing licence, months after launching new platform

The cryptocurrency exchange Bitget has announced that it will not continue its efforts to obtain a license in Hong Kong and will completely withdraw from the city. This news comes just a short time after they launched a new platform for Hong Kong users to follow the local rules for trading virtual assets. The company stated that their decision to stop going after the license and to shut down their Hong Kong operations was due to business strategies and changes in the market. nnBitget, which is based in Singapore and has been around for five years, is ranked as the 12th largest crypto exchange in the world by trading volume. Hong Kong had been trying to attract crypto businesses by introducing a new licensing system that would let these exchanges serve everyday investors. Bitget created a separate platform called BitgetX to meet these new regulations, but now they are asking users to remove their assets before it closes down. nnHong Kong's ambition to become a major hub for cryptocurrency has faced several obstacles, including the high costs of meeting regulatory requirements and a loss of trust in virtual assets due to a scandal with another crypto platform, JPEX. So far, only a handful of companies have applied for the new virtual asset license, and most of them are local firms. Larger international crypto exchanges have shown little interest in getting licensed in Hong Kong. The new licensing policy has mainly attracted companies with connections to Hong Kong and China, such as OKX and HTX. Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world, has not publicly discussed its licensing intentions in Hong Kong, although it is linked to a local exchange that is seeking a license.