The government of Hong Kong is still dedicated to advancing the crypto industry, even amidst the recent troubles caused by the FTX crisis. Financial Secretary of Hong Kong, Paul Chan, has stated that the government and regulators are willing to work with crypto and fintech startups in the coming year 2023. He made these comments at an event held by the government-supported Cyberport incubator, as reported by Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) on January 9.The financial secretary stated that there have been many requests from crypto-related companies in the past two months to establish their global headquarters in Hong Kong. He also mentioned that many industry firms have shown a desire to expand their operations in Hong Kong or to list their companies on local exchanges.
He further highlighted that the Hong Kong government is trying its best to create an appropriate level of oversight for the crypto market in order to leverage the potential of technologies such as Web3.
He noted that in December, Hong Kong legislators passed legislation to establish a licensing system for virtual asset service providers. The goal of this new regulatory framework is to give crypto exchanges the same level of recognition in the market as traditional financial institutions currently have.
He also mentioned that officials and regulators in Hong Kong are currently conducting pilot projects to examine the potential benefits of virtual assets and investigate related uses. One such initiative involves issuing tokenized green bonds by the Hong Kong government for investment by institutional investors.
Hong Kong has been consistently reaffirming its favourable attitude towards crypto over the past year, making it the most crypto-friendly country in 2022.
In December, Hong Kong introduced its first two exchange-traded funds (ETF) for crypto futures, which raised over $70 million before their official launch.
The writer is the founder at yMedia. He ventured into crypto in 2013 and is an ETH maximalist. Twitter: @bhardwajshash
First Published: Jan 10, 2023, 17:08
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