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Malaysian regulators add Huobi to investor alert list

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23
Aug

The Securities Commission (SC) of Malaysia issued a statement on Monday regarding Huobi’s operations in the country. According to the statement, the crypto exchange is now on the SC’s Investor Alert List. 

Malaysian financial regulators say Huobi has been operating a digital asset exchange in the country without official registration with the SC.

In a follow-up tweet, the SC said that any operations that perform or offer capital market activities within the country require its approval. Those who aren’t granted such approval are considered unlicensed or unregistered entities. Local authorities say investors are “strongly urged” not to invest in such operations.

Additionally, the SC highlighted that anyone who does utilize such a service does so at a risk and would not be able to legally resolve monetary losses.

Such a statement does not bode well for the exchange. Local investors responded to the tweet by saying a simple fix is to change exchanges.

In an official statement, the Huobi Group responded to Cointelegraph, stating that compliance is a core pillar of its business model in every country of its operations:

“We are currently in discussions with Malaysian regulatory authorities regarding our presence in the local Malaysian market.” 

This comes amid an array of developments for the global exchange.

In countries such as Australia and the United States, Huobi is taking steps toward expansion. Australian regulators greenlit the exchange in early August. In the United States, Huobi has secured a FinCEN license, which brings it one step closer to offering services to American clients.

Related: Huobi co-founder reportedly looks to sell majority stake valued at over $1B

While the exchange is taking steps in the right direction in some places, there are road bumps in others, like Thailand and New Zealand. Huobi’s Thailand affiliate recently shut down because it could not fix major systematic issues, despite several extensions from local regulators.

In New Zealand, Huobi announced on Aug. 16 that it will end derivatives trading to complianc with local regulations. This comes only a few months after it won its initial license to operate in New Zealand.

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