HashKey Technology Services Receives In-Principal Approval for Major Payments License in Singapore

HashKey Technology Services, the OTC trading arm of HashKey Group, gets in-principal approval from MAS for its major payments license application, advancing towards offering comprehensive and regulated OTC trading solutions supporting digital fiat and crypto services.

HashKey Technology Services, the OTC trading division of HashKey Group, has received preliminary approval on February 28 from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for its significant payments license (MPI) application to offer digital fiat and cryptocurrency services.

“With this preliminary approval, we are pleased to progress towards providing a comprehensive and regulated OTC trading solution that caters to a wide array of digital payment tokens and fiat currencies,” stated Li Liang, CEO of HashKey OTC.

Presently, HashKey OTC operates under a licensing exemption in Singapore. The company serves accredited investors and financial institutions with spot trading for 40 digital assets, along with liquidity support, fiat-to-crypto on-ramp services, and large notional trades.

In December 2023, MAS granted HashKey OTC a Capital Markets Services license. MPI-licensed entities are empowered to conduct payment services without being subjected to transaction limits of 3 million Singapore dollars ($2.2 million) for any payment service. The approved entities are also exempt from the 6 million Singapore dollar ($4.4 million) limit of monthly transactions for two or more payment services apart from e-money account issuance and money-changing services.

HashKey Group presently operates one of the only two cryptocurrency exchanges in Hong Kong licensed for virtual assets trading, the other being OSL Exchange. On January 16, HashKey Group achieved unicorn status after concluding a $100 million Series A funding round at a valuation of $1.2 billion.

HashKey’s chief operating officer, Livio Weng, disclosed to Chinese media outlet Caixin in an interview published on January 10 that 10 firms are considering launching spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in Hong Kong following their approval by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in the same month.