Now is the “right time” for Hong Kong to push ahead with Web3 despite the crypto market fluctuations, in keeping with the Financial Secretary of Hong Kong, Paul Chan.
In an April 9 weblog put up, Chan defined that one of many three main instructions he has proposed within the metropolis’s finances was for the additional improvement and software of Web3.
Translated, Chan wrote that for “Web3 to steadily take the road of innovative development” Hong Kong will “adopt a strategy that emphasizes both ‘proper regulation’ and ‘promoting development.'”
Chan says the area additionally plans to give attention to monetary safety, stopping systemic dangers and give attention to investor schooling, safety, and measures round anti-money laundering.
In October final 12 months, the federal government of Hong Kong floated the concept of introducing a invoice to control crypto.
By Feb. 20 of this 12 months, Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), the native securities regulator, launched a proposal for a regime for cryptocurrency exchanges set to take impact in June.
The trade has been struggling a savage bear market and setbacks with alternate collapses and ongoing scrutiny from regulators.
According to Chan the trade is solely going by means of the identical course of because the Internet within the early 2000s, and after the “bursting of the bubble”, market contributors turned a lot calmer.
“After the tide of speculation ebbs, the remaining powerful players will focus more on competing in technological innovation, practical application and value creation, and contribute to improving the quality of the real economy,” Chan wrote.
“In the next stage, market participants need to develop blockchain technology more deeply, so that its characteristics and advantages of transparency, efficiency, security, disintermediation, de-platformization, and low cost can find wider application scenarios and solve more existing problems.”
Hong Kong’s strategy to crypto regulation vastly contrasts that of the United States, which has adopted a extra hardline response that is led to hypothesis that the crypto trade’s “center of gravity” will shift to Hong Kong.
Related: Hong Kong crypto companies seeing curiosity from Chinese banks: Report
Cryptocurrency alternate Gate.io has already introduced plans to launch a presence in Hong Kong following the native authorities’s deliberate 50 million Hong Kong greenback ($6.4 million) money injection into Web3 within the metropolis’s 2023-24 finances.
In a March 20 speech in Hong Kong, the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Christian Hui, said that Hong Kong has been attracting “interest” from numerous crypto companies worldwide since October 2022.
“The road of innovation and technological change has never been smooth sailing,” Chan mentioned in his newest put up.
“Even if the development direction is locked, the actual path has to be worked out step by step; only by persisting in trying can we find new solutions and new ways out,” he added.
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