The Securities Commission of Malaysia has released a statement on the operations of the Huobi cryptocurrency exchange. The regulators said that Huobi was now on its Investor Alert List.
The Malaysian financial regulators released a statement saying that the Huobi exchange was operating a cryptocurrency exchange in the country without acquiring the required registration from the Securities Commission.
The Alert List includes the cryptocurrency companies without the regulatory greenlight to operate within the Malaysian border. Without the required registration, the SC cannot assure investors of being protected if they choose to invest in digital assets through these platforms.
The SC later tweeted that companies that wanted to provide capital market services within the country needed regulatory approval. The regulatory body also added that the companies that did not receive the required registration were unlicensed and unregistered.
The local regulatory bodies have said that investors are urged not to invest in these activities provided by unregulated companies such as Huobi. This is because such companies have yet to undergo a rigorous registration process to guarantee consumer protection.
The SC has also said that the investors who seek to invest in these services should only do so at their own risk. Moreover, if they suffer monetary loss because of their actions, they would not be eligible for any legal means of recovering their investment.
The statement provided by SC does not shed a positive light on the Huobi exchange. The tweet by the regulator received responses from other users that said some changes were needed to fix the company’s operations.
Huobi Group also released an official statement that complies with the local regulations was a critical factor in its business model. It also said that the exchange planned to achieve regulatory compliance in each country where it operated. The exchange has also said that it is holding talks with the Malaysian regulators to discuss the presence of the exchange in the Malaysian market.
Huobi’s global crypto operations
There have been numerous developments happening around the Huobi exchange. Huobi has taken important steps to expand its operations in countries like Australia and the US. Australia-based regulators have approved the exchange to commence operations in early August.
In the US, Huobi received a FinCEN license that brought it closer to providing its services to clients in the United States. Despite its progress in some jurisdictions, it is challenging to advance in other jurisdictions.
Countries like New Zealand and Thailand have made it hard for Huobi to operate. Huobi’s Thailand division was recently shut down for failing to fix systematic issues despite multiple extensions from local regulatory agencies.
In New Zealand, the exchange also announced it would halt derivatives trading to comply with the local regulators. The announcement comes a few months after the exchange received a license to operate in New Zealand
