The brand new licensing program, scheduled to take off in June, will limit retail merchants in Hong Kong to “highly-liquid” digital belongings, in keeping with the brand new CEO of Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Fee (SFC), Julia Leung Fung-yee.
On the latest Asia Monetary Discussion board, Leung pointed out that many digital asset platforms have 1000’s of merchandise. Nonetheless, the SFC govt highlighted that they aren’t planning to “permit retail traders to commerce in all of them.” As an alternative, the SFC will arrange standards that permit retail merchants to solely commerce main digital belongings.
Whereas the SFC govt didn’t present extra particulars as to which belongings will probably be out there for buying and selling, Leung talked about that these will probably be belongings with “deep liquidity.” When requested about Bitcoin (BTC) or Ether (ETH), the SFC govt didn’t reply, however reiterated that “extremely liquid” belongings will probably be allowed.
Regardless of the restrictions that will probably be positioned on retail traders, Leung highlighted that they’re shifting to place Hong Kong as a digital asset hub. “We goal to have a correct regulatory framework to safeguard the curiosity of all traders and to reinforce Hong Kong as a digital asset hub,” she stated.
The CEO additionally famous that correct regulation may stop points, such because the collapse of the FTX alternate, from occurring in Hong Kong.
In a latest occasion, Hong Kong’s monetary secretary Paul Chan stated that many crypto corporations 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 expertise.
Associated: Hong Kong brokers line up for SFC approval forward of latest digital asset buying and selling laws
Digital belongings have not too long ago been a sizzling matter 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 belongings in Web3.
