Hong Kong — officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China — is a city of over seven million residents on the eastern Pearl River Delta in South China. The city is known for being pro-innovation and technology, and over the past year, it has introduced legislation to promote and adopt cryptocurrencies.
Hong Kong is a major world economy, serving as a center for investment and trade in the region. The city is a cosmopolitan metropolis with Western and Asian influences, and is a well-established data hub for key businesses in finance, shipping, trade and retail, with crypto becoming the latest addition.
While China has maintained a hardline anti-crypto stance for almost half a decade, last year, Hong Kong introduced its own crypto legislation allowing retail investors to invest directly in crypto assets.
In 2023, as most countries in the West are still cautious about cryptocurrencies, Hong Kong has taken a decidedly pro-crypto stance.
In January, as the crypto industry was reeling from the FTX crisis, Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary Paul Chan said that local government and regulators are looking forward to building a crypto and fintech ecosystem in 2023.
On Jan. 13, just days after Chan’s statement, Korean tech giant Samsung announced the launch of a Bitcoin Futures Active ETF, or exchange-traded fund, on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong.
In mid-February, sources claimed that some Chinese officials were reportedly giving tacit approval to Hong Kong’s pro-crypto efforts. Local business operators stated that the Chinese government might even be open to using Hong Kong as a test bed for crypto as long as it doesn’t threaten the country’s financial stability.
By March, more than 80 crypto firms expressed interest in opening an office in Hong Kong.
In April, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) — the region’s central banking institution and regulator — called on banks to provide services to cryptocurrency firms. The HKMA asked banking institutions to be attentive to market developments and take a forward-looking approach to the nascent tech sector, including cryptocurrencies.
Global crypto exchanges eye the Hong Kong market
In May, the chair of the FinTech Association of Hong Kong told Cointelegraph that the pro-crypto state would launch a licensing regime for crypto service providers and exchanges with a deadline of June 1, including retail. Later in the month, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures…
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