Hong Kong Poised to Regulate Crypto Trading: Report

Hong Kong is planning to regulate retail crypto trading in 2023 in a bid to reboot the city’s web3 sector, according to an Oct. 27 report from Bloomberg News.

The report, which cites anonymous sources “familiar with the matter,” claims Hong Kong is preparing to introduce a licensing regime for crypto exchanges that will be introduced next March.

International Center

Bloomberg said the regulatory framework will allow both institutional entities and retail traders to access the digital asset markets.

More details on the regime may emerge during the Hong Kong FinTech Week conference beginning Monday. The government said it will showcase its vision for “developing Hong Kong into an international virtual assets center,” officials told The South China Morning Post earlier this month.

Hong Kong’s government may also embrace nonfungible tokens at the event by issuing 2,000 NFTs to participants. The tokens offer benefits to holders such as discounted tickets for next year’s event.

Turmoil

The news comes as Hong Kong’s government is scrambling to attract tech talent to set up shop in a city state racked by turmoil during the Covid-19 pandemic and Beijing’s crackdown on free speech. Many devs and tech executives have decamped for other business hubs such as Singapore and London.

In early October, the government announced the second round of its $1.3M “Proof-of-Concept” cash subsidy scheme for fintech startups that base themselves in Hong Kong.

In July, Forex Suggest reported that Hong Kong was the most “crypto-ready” jurisdiction in the world, followed by the United States and Switzerland. The study considered local crypto regulations, the number of local blockchain startups, crypto search volumes, the number of crypto ATMs, and local taxation laws.