Crypto.com shuts its Hong Kong consumer app after 998 days without a licence

Crypto.com Hong Kong customers will lose the consumer app on 1 February 2027. The company confirmed the plan to Bloomberg on Monday 2 November and said it had already written to affected users. They will get instructions on closing accounts and withdrawing funds.

In those emails Crypto.com pointed to regulatory changes, local outlet HK01 reported. The company did not say which changes it meant and did not answer press questions before publication.

Two companies under one brand

• Foris DAX MT Limited runs the consumer app that closes in February.
• Foris DAX HK Limited applied to the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) for a virtual asset trading platform (VATP) licence.

If you hold coins in the app, your account sits with the entity that leaves. Crypto.com says it still wants a licence for Crypto.com Exchange, its institutional venue, and has not said whether retail clients can move there.

The longest wait on the register

Foris DAX HK filed its application on 9 February 2024. The SFC register, last updated on 16 October 2026, still shows it as "deemed-to-be-licensed". Hong Kong gave that transitional status in June 2024 to platforms that had applied before the deadline, and the SFC can still approve or reject them.

By our count, the application has waited 998 days as of 3 November. On the day the app goes dark, the wait reaches 1,088 days.

Crypto.com now stands almost alone in that category. The applicant list has five names, and two carry the deemed-to-be-licensed mark: Crypto.com and WhaleFin, which the SFC flags as having ceased business. The other three, including Bybit affiliate Spark Fintech, applied after the cut-off or without that status.

Thirteen platforms hold a full licence. OSL got the first in December 2020. Bullish received its licence in February 2025, a year after Crypto.com filed. The newest names are VDX, licensed in February 2026, and Bixin, licensed in May 2026.

What Hong Kong users should do

The rulebook keeps growing. Hong Kong plans separate licences for crypto dealing, custody, advisory and management, as we wrote about the city's licensing bill.

You have until 1 February 2027 to move assets out of the Crypto.com app if you use it in Hong Kong. Before you pick a new home for them, check the SFC's list of licensed platforms on sfc.hk. If you hold thinly traded coins, find out early whether you can send them to an external wallet or will have to sell them.

Crypto.com has not named the regulatory changes it cited; licence data come from the SFC register as of 16 October 2026.