Some of China’s most valuable start-ups are scrambling to find a way out of listings purgatory in the US as their top advisers on Wall Street admit they have been stymied by new demands from regulators in Beijing and Washington.

More than 50 Chinese companies that filed their intention to list on US markets this year are “in limbo”, several of their advisers said. Initial public offerings by Chinese groups in the US have ground to a halt after the $4.4bn listing of ride-hailing app Didi Chuxing in June, which was followed by a flurry of regulatory moves in China and the US.

Bankers have been forced to freeze deals that were near completion as they weigh up how to comply with new requirements from US financial regulators to explain how they will be affected by new Chinese rules that do not yet exist in their final form.