Cryptocurrency buying and selling is a crucial a part of the digital asset ecosystem, in accordance to Julia Leung Fung-yee, CEO of the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong.
In a current speech, Leung stated the city-state acknowledges the significance of crypto buying and selling, including that it welcomes the appliance of associated applied sciences to monetary companies, together with bond tokenization and funding funds.
The CEO additionally talked about that Hong Kong’s embrace of Web3 regulation has been essential to the event of its digital asset ecosystem following the collapse of the crypto alternate FTX in November 2022.
She outlined how the brand new licensing system for digital asset suppliers would make sure that traders are protected whereas contemplating the dangers that monetary establishments face.
Incorporating digital asset suppliers into the regulatory system, in her view, was the one means to embrace innovation and strengthen market belief after FTX’s chapter.
Following the collapse of FTX, Hong Kong began taking measures in a bid to cut back regulatory dangers related to centralized exchanges.
In December 2022, its legislative council included digital asset service suppliers in the identical laws governing conventional monetary establishments.
Furthermore, the town’s monetary regulator carried out its new regulatory framework for crypto on the primary of June.
The new guidelines introduce strict Anti-Money Laundering pointers and investor safety legal guidelines to digital asset exchanges wanting to open a enterprise in Hong Kong.
It additionally permits retail traders the power to commerce digital belongings, as an alternative of proscribing digital belongings buying and selling to skilled traders and merchants with at the least $1 million in bankable belongings.
Hong Kong Pressures Banks to Engage With Crypto Clients
Earlier this month, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) questioned banks together with HSBC, Standard Chartered, and Bank of China for why that they had not accepted crypto exchanges as purchasers.
The HKMA informed the banks that due diligence on such potential prospects shouldn’t “create undue burden,” notably “for those setting up an office in Hong Kong to look for the opportunities here.”
The transfer comes as the town has not too long ago proven a transparent want to rebuild its place as a hub for the trade.
Back in February, the federal government even allotted 50 million yuan ($7 million) to pace up the event of Web3.
The efforts have ostensibly paid off as increasingly crypto firms proceed to transfer to the city-state to get pleasure from a pleasant regulatory surroundings.
Last week, Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po stated that greater than 150 Web3 corporations have established operations within the metropolis’s Cyberport over the previous 12 months.
Cyberport, which is managed by a wholly-owned subsidiary of the federal government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, hosts a complete of 1,900 enterprises, Chan added.
