The SC's door has opened again — for a team that knows exactly what's behind it.
Hata Digital Sdn Bhd has been granted conditional approval to operate as a Digital Asset Exchange and Digital Broker under the Recognised Market Operator framework — the first and only approval issued since the SC reopened DAX applications in November 2022. It makes Hata Malaysia's fifth regulated DAX, and the first to hold the digital broker registration.
The team
Hata is founded by David Low — Luno's former APAC general manager, who left the market leader in April — alongside CRO Darien Ng and KK Chong. The pedigree matters: this is the first Malaysian DAX founded by alumni of an incumbent licensee. Hata also holds a Labuan FSA money-broking licence, obtained in June, for a parallel USD-denominated exchange.
What's next
As with every conditional approval, Hata now has a compliance runway to complete before launch. The digital broker registration is the piece to watch — it opens the possibility of routing orders across venues, a small step toward the market structure mature exchanges take for granted.
Update, 24 July 2024: Hata received full SC approval and launched its MYR exchange with more than ten approved tokens.