Hong Kong SFC expands violations list adding MEXC for unlicensed operations

Hong Kong financial regulator, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), issued a public warning about MEXC’s unlicensed operations within its jurisdictions.

SFC stated:

“The entity purports to be a virtual asset trading platform operating at the above website. It has been targeting Hong Kong investors but is not licensed by the Securities and Futures Commission.”

Consequently, the platform has been added to Hong Kong’s list of suspicious virtual asset trading platforms, including other notable crypto firms like ByBit.

Local laws violation

Per the SFC, MEXC’s operation in the city-state violated local laws.

According to the SFC:

“Under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance, it is an offence to carry on a business of providing a virtual asset service (ie, operating a virtual asset exchange) in Hong Kong and/or actively market such services to Hong Kong investors without a licence.”

This is not the first time the SFC has issued a public warning related to the MEXC exchange. Earlier in the year, the regulator stated that scammers were pretending to be from the crypto trading platform and luring unsuspecting victims into participating in what appears to be a crypto investment scam.

The scammers used links with addresses that start with “MEXC” and end in random letters, similar to phishing links.

As such, the SFC said it may pursue regulatory action against the platform if necessary.

“The SFC will not hesitate to take enforcement action against unlicensed activities where appropriate,” it added.

Meanwhile, the financial regulator warned crypto investors against trading on unregistered platforms, adding that they risk losing their investment if the platform experiences any form of failure.

SFC’s MEXC warning is unsurprising, considering the financial watchdog recently ended its registration window for crypto firms to apply for licensing to operate within the Asian city-state. Unregistered entities must close their businesses by the end of May.

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