Written by: Bitrace
The Hong Kong (Stablecoin Regulation) (hereinafter referred to as the Regulation) officially came into effect on August 1, 2025. The regulation sets strict rules for the issuance and operation of stablecoins, explicitly prohibiting offers, promotions, and sales of stablecoins without a license, without providing a transition period.
As institutions primarily engaged in the exchange of stablecoins and fiat currencies, local cryptocurrency exchange shops in Hong Kong are the first to be affected. After the regulation took effect, several OTC service providers announced the suspension of stablecoin-related business while waiting to apply for licenses.
This article aims to provide a blockchain perspective for regulatory authorities by disclosing the TRC20-USDT outflow data from the addresses of Hong Kong's OTC service providers (HKVAOTC) over the past 70 days.
Data Description
Bitrace has long monitored the business address traffic of VAOTC entities located in Hong Kong or primarily serving Hong Kong customers, which belong to either store-type service providers serving offline or real-name customers, or non-store-type service providers serving online or anonymous customers.
This survey data disclosure will encompass all service providers' TRC20-USDT outflow data during the two time periods from June 1 to July 31, 2025, and from August 1 to August 8.
The following data has excluded non-business transfer activities between business addresses.
The trading volume of stablecoins in the OTC market has decreased by 32.94%
Between June 1 and July 31, a total of 3.17B USDT was transferred out from all business addresses, averaging 52.04M USDT per day; between August 1 and August 8, a total of 279M USDT was transferred out from all business addresses, averaging 34.90M USDT per day.
Compared to before the regulation took effect, the overall scale of the stablecoin exchange market decreased by 32.94% after August 1, indicating the profound impact of the regulation on Hong Kong's local cryptocurrency industry.
Store-type service providers reduced their scale more significantly
Traffic statistics were conducted separately for the business addresses of store-type and non-store-type service providers.
After the regulation took effect, the daily average outflow of USDT from store-type service providers' business addresses decreased by 43.20% (9.47M -> 5.38M), while non-store-type service providers decreased by 30.65% (42.57M -> 29.52M).
The impact on store-type service providers is significantly higher than that on non-store-type providers, indicating that after the regulation took effect, some merchants in Hong Kong's OTC trading service industry have shown a trend of moving underground in a short period.
Final Thoughts
The introduction of the (Stablecoin Regulation) marks an important progress in the compliance of Hong Kong's cryptocurrency industry, significantly impacting the local OTC trading service industry in the short term. Among relevant practitioners, some choose to comply with regulatory licensing applications, while others turn to underground operations, showing differentiated choices.
