Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission — a primary market regulator — published a "new roadmap to develop Hong Kong as a global virtual asset hub" earlier this week during Consensus Hong Kong as part of its ongoing efforts to oversee the sector.
Julia Leung, SFC's chief executive officer, said on stage that the regulator would focus on three main pillars: innovation, security and growth. Custody, over-the-counter dealing and stablecoins are all part of SFC's efforts, she said, which will soon expand to product offerings and services, including derivatives and margin lending.
Other areas of interest include addressing custody issues with different types of wallets and insurance requirements, she said.
"These are the things that we will review on the compliance side and how to actually maximize the operational process," she said.
The roadmap published online calls for ensuring Hong Kong's existing regulatory framework continues to address "new priorities" as the crypto market changes.
Elsewhere, Standard Chartered Bank, Hong Kong Telecom and Animoca Brands unveiled a joint venture aiming to issue a licensed stablecoin pegged to the Hong Kong dollar in the near future.
Mary Huen, the CEO of Standard Chartered Hong Kong and Greater China & North Asia, said on stage that digital assets will become a "key component" of its future financial infrastructure.
The bank had already built tools for tokenization and custody, she said.
"Standard Chartered Bank, together with our partners, has been actively participating in building the ecosystem for Hong Kong to become the global digital hub," she said. These projects include the e-Hong Kong dollar, the mBridge cross-border payment hub, the Ensemble wholesale central bank digital currency project "and, of course, the Hong Kong MA stablecoin issuer sandbox."
The Hong Kong Legislative Council is still reading the legislation that would authorize the licensing of stablecoins, The first reading is completed, Animoca's Evan Auyang said during a panel discussion, marking progress for this effort.
These discussions were received positively by the businesses and other individuals attending Consensus, based on the conversations I had with people on and off the stage. The U.S. being friendlier toward crypto is another facet of that positive sentiment, but the fact that other jurisdictions are making efforts seems to be promising.
Interestingly, while recent memecoins were criticized (namely, the Javier Milei-linked LIBRA), no one seemed to take issue with the concept of memecoins broadly — although the recent craze does seem to bear striking similarities to past cycles like NFTs, yield farming and the 2017 ICO boom.
