Police in Hong Kong and Macau have arrested four further people in a probe linked to the JPEX crypto exchange, the South China Morning Post reported Friday.

The arrest of people who the police say are "relatively close to core" of the scandal brings the total number of detentions to 18, and a number of other fugitives are still being tracked, the report said, adding that one suspect was allegedly found destroying documents with paper shredders and bleach in an apartment bathtub.

Funds were frozen on the JPEX platform after Hong Kong's Securities and Future Commission accused it of operating without a license a few weeks ago, and the regulator has now said it will publish details of license applicants in response to the case.

The affair shows the need for strong crypto licensing laws, Hong Kong leader John Lee has said, but the exchange has complained its "unfair" treatment could jeopardize the territory's ambitions to become a crypto hub.

Regulations Hong Kong Macau

Jack Schickler

Jack Schickler was a CoinDesk reporter focused on crypto regulations, based in Brussels, Belgium. He previously wrote about financial regulation for news site MLex, before which he was a speechwriter and policy analyst at the European Commission and the U.K. Treasury. He doesn’t own any crypto.