The brand new licensing program, scheduled to take off in June, will prohibit retail merchants in Hong Kong to “highly-liquid” digital property, in response to the brand new CEO of Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Fee (SFC), Julia Leung Fung-yee.
On the current Asia Monetary Discussion board, Leung pointed out that many digital asset platforms have hundreds of merchandise. Nonetheless, the SFC govt highlighted that they don’t seem to be planning to “enable retail buyers to commerce in all of them.” As an alternative, the SFC will arrange standards that enable retail merchants to solely commerce main digital property.
Whereas the SFC govt didn’t present extra particulars as to which property will probably be accessible for buying and selling, Leung talked about that these will probably be property with “deep liquidity.” When requested about Bitcoin (BTC) or Ether (ETH), the SFC govt didn’t reply, however reiterated that “extremely liquid” property will probably be allowed.
Regardless of the restrictions that will probably be positioned on retail buyers, Leung highlighted that they’re shifting to place Hong Kong as a digital asset hub. “We intention to have a correct regulatory framework to safeguard the curiosity of all buyers and to boost Hong Kong as a digital asset hub,” she mentioned.
The CEO additionally famous that correct regulation might forestall points, such because the collapse of the FTX alternate, from occurring in Hong Kong.
In a current occasion, Hong Kong’s monetary secretary Paul Chan mentioned that many crypto companies are requesting to arrange store in Hong Kong. The official highlighted that the federal government is doing its finest to supply acceptable supervision to the crypto house and understand the potential of Web3 know-how.
Associated: Hong Kong brokers line up for SFC approval forward of latest digital asset buying and selling laws
Digital property have not too long ago been a scorching subject within the particular administrative area. On Jan. 5, a Hong Kong official floated the concept of turning the Hong Kong digital greenback right into a stablecoin. Wu Jiezhuang, a legislative council member, believes this might deal with dangers linked to digital property in Web3.