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Hong Kong Regulator Gives Crypto Exchange OSL Tentative Licensure Approval
OSL Digital Securities was the first crypto exchange to apply for the SFC's opt-in license last November.
By Danny Nelson
Updated Dec 11, 2022, 7:37 p.m. Published Aug 21, 2020, 9:16 p.m.
Hong Kong may soon have its first fully licensed cryptocurrency exchange: OSL Digital Securities, which on Friday received a landmark approval-in-principal from the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC).
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- Preliminary approvalhttps://bc.group/media/pressrelease/20200821_pr_aip_enf.pdf pushes OSL, a subsidiary of Fidelity-backed BC Group, closer to becoming one of the first exchanges licensed to offer automated digital asset trading services under the virtual asset regime SFC unveiled last November.
- Full licensure is contingent on OSL satisfying undisclosed conditions, according to Reuters. But OSL is well positioned; it was the first exchange to applyhttps://osl.com/en/in-the-news/press-releases/bcgroupsoslfirsttosubmitdigitalassetlicenseapplicationtosfcinhongkong for the license and appears to be the only one this far along.
- SFC is one of a handful of regional regulators beefing up its virtual asset oversight in response to anti-money-laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) concerns.
- The watchdog's approach to crypto now treats virtual asset exchanges much like traditional securities brokerages in terms of oversight. It is, however, an "opt-in" system.
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What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
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