Yu Weiwen, President of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, said today (9) that although the Hong Kong government has promised to develop the cryptocurrency industry in a sustainable manner, it will “never be soft” in terms of regulation. Cryptocurrency companies that want to establish a foothold in Hong Kong should not take it lightly .
When Yu Weiwen attended the “Bloomberg Fortune Summit” earlier today, he emphasized that Hong Kong’s supervision of cryptocurrencies will be strict. He added that although relevant industries are allowed to build an ecosystem in Hong Kong, this does not mean that the government’s supervision is loose.
The Hong Kong Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) licensing system will be officially launched on June 1 this year, and plans to open retail investors to invest in mainstream cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. As for the licensing system for stablecoins, it is expected to be implemented this year or next year.
So far, the companies holding virtual asset licenses in Hong Kong are HashKey and OSL, while Huobi and OKX have expressed their intention to apply for an exchange license in Hong Kong and set up offices there. In addition, Singapore-based DBS Bank also issued a statement stating that it intends to apply for relevant licenses in Hong Kong to provide cryptocurrency services to local customers.
Yu Weiwen pointed out that banks are currently providing further guidance to cryptocurrency customers, and the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission will announce the results of its review on “retail investors participating in the cryptocurrency market” in the short term.
Yu Weiwen also mentioned that Hong Kong’s cryptocurrency guardrail has been very tight in the past few years. Although it has now been reduced to a “reasonable and sustainable level”, the government will never allow an event similar to the collapse of FTX to happen again in Hong Kong.
