Hong Kong crypto exchange licenses are costing applicants several million dollars, a far cry from the $25 million witnessed a year ago. 

In an interview with the Financial Times, Livio Wang, chief operating officer of HashKey Group, said that the crypto exchange licenses are “not necessarily tens of millions of dollars, but certainly tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars [several million in USD].”

He explained that “the costs corresponding to the stage of preparing license review materials are different from those of the operation stage.”

Since June 1, Hong Kong regulators have kicked out all unlicensed crypto exchanges in the East Asian city, with the penalty of criminal charges for noncompliance. Currently, there are more than 11 firms with the “deemed to be licensed” designation. As of last year, there are only two fully licensed exchanges: HashKey and OSL.