OKX Restricts Claude Access for Hong Kong Staff After Account Suspension

Global cryptocurrency exchange OKX has restricted access to Claude for employees based in Hong Kong and those traveling in China, Bloomberg reported on August 20.

Earlier this month, OKX stopped providing the service to employees in Hong Kong shortly after its corporate Claude account was temporarily suspended, Bloomberg reported. The company’s enterprise account was later restored.

Anthropic currently does not allow Claude to be used in mainland China or Hong Kong. OKX told Bloomberg it recently identified that some employees working in Hong Kong may not have been using Claude in full compliance with Anthropic’s regional policies. The exchange added that it would restrict Claude access for Hong Kong staff when necessary and route AI requests to other models.

In a recent internal notice, OKX said it would not support access to Claude through virtual private networks, or VPNs, for employees traveling in China or Hong Kong. As a result, OKX employees can use Claude only in regions where Anthropic officially offers the service.

The move comes as OKX has been stepping up its use of AI across its operations. Bloomberg reported that the company spends $6 million to $8 million a month on subscriptions for large language model-based AI services.