Huobi to suspend services for its Singapore-based customers
According to a company announcement on Nov. 9, Seychelles-based crypto exchange Huobi Global has decided to comply with Singapore laws by halting its offerings to Singapore-based customers.
“To comply with the laws of Singapore, we will have to include Singapore as a restricted jurisdiction. Regrettably, this means Huobi Global can no longer offer services to Singapore-based users,” said the announcement.
The exchange intends to cautiously phase out access to services and also shut down the accounts of all Singapore-based users on March 31, 2022. Consequently, customers in the region have been urged to quickly close all their active positions and also withdraw their digital assets before the deadline.
The decision by the company, which was initially founded in China, is part of its plan to prioritize its global expansion and regulatory compliance after it restricted its Chinese customers from accessing some of its services following the country’s crackdown on crypto operations.
Meanwhile, Huobi Global revealed earlier this week that it had received the green light from the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission to migrate spot trading services to its regulated entity in Gibraltar. The firm had already obtained a distributed ledger technology license in Gibraltar since 2018.
Current regulations in Singapore require cryptocurrency exchanges to have a license under the city-state’s Payment Services Act (PS Act) before they can provide digital payment token services in the country.
However, institutions have been granted exemptions from holding a license as part of the transitional arrangements under the PS Act. This enables them to provide services while their license applications are being processed. These exemptions become invalid the moment the entity’s license application is approved, rejected, or withdrawn.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has so far given licenses to Singapore-based payments providers, including FOMO Pay, DBS banks brokerage, DBS Vickers, and the Australian cryptocurrency exchange, Independent Reserve.
Interestingly, Huobi was not listed on the MAS list of entities that have been granted an exemption from holding a license under the Payment Services Act neither was it on the list of non-exempted entities.
