OKX, the third-largest crypto exchange, withdrew its application to operate in Hong Kong.
The exchange joins a growing number of applicants to have withdrawn from the approval process.

OKX, one of the largest crypto exchanges, said it withdrew its application to provide digital asset services in Hong Kong.

"After careful consideration of our business strategy, we've decided to withdraw OKX HK's VASP license application at this time," the exchange said on its website.

The exchange, the third largest by volume traded, according to CoinGecko data, will stop providing centralized virtual asset trading services in the territory by May 31, it said. After that, customers will be able only to withdraw their funds.

Earlier this month a number of other applicants, including the Hong Kong-based subsidiary of HTX, Huobi Hong Kong, withdrew their applications with the Securities and Futures Commission.

Many major crypto exchanges, including Crypto.com, and Bullish, the owner of CoinDesk, are currently having their licenses reviewed by the regulator. So far the SFC has approved only two exchanges, the last in 2022.

Hong Kong OKX Licensing SFC Exchanges

Sheldon Reback

Sheldon Reback is CoinDesk's European news editor. Before joining the company, he spent 26 years as an editor at Bloomberg News, where he worked on beats as diverse as stock markets and the retail industry as well as covering the dot-com bubble of 2000-2002. He subsequently managed the Bloomberg Terminal's main news page before becoming the European editor for a global project to produce short, chart-based stories across the newsroom. His previous work as a journalist took him to Hong Kong, where he reported and edited for several technology magazines, and he also has experience in market research and writing computer manuals. Sheldon has an MBA from the London Business School and an industrial chemistry degree from Brunel University. He owns a small amount of ether.