Hong Kong Mulls Letting Retail Investors Trade Crypto, Removing ‘Professional Investor-Only Requirement’

1 year ago

Hong Kong Mulls Letting Retail Investors Trade Crypto, Removing 'Professional Investor-Only Requirement'

The manager of licensing and caput of the fintech portion of Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has confirmed that the regulator is considering allowing retail investors to put straight successful crypto assets. “We’ve had 4 years of acquisition successful regulating this manufacture … We deliberation that this whitethorn beryllium really a bully clip to truly deliberation cautiously astir whether we volition proceed with this nonrecreational investor-only requirement.”

SFC Director connected Crypto Regulation successful Hong Kong

Elizabeth Wong, manager of licensing and caput of the fintech portion of Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), talked astir cryptocurrency regularisation during a sheet treatment held by Invest HK connected Monday, South China Morning Post reported.

She explained that the regulatory situation for crypto successful Hong Kong is antithetic from successful mainland China. Emphasizing that Hong Kong tin present its ain measure to modulate cryptocurrencies, she stressed that it “shows conscionable however abstracted Hong Kong is from the mainland.”

The manager confirmed that the SFC is presently considering allowing retail investors to “directly put into virtual assets.” Over the past 4 years, the regulator has taken the stance of limiting crypto trading connected centralized exchanges to nonrecreational investors, which are individuals with astatine slightest HK$8 cardinal (US$1 million) successful liquid assets, the work conveyed.

Noting that the crypto manufacture has go much compliant, the SFC manager said:

We’ve had 4 years of acquisition successful regulating this manufacture … We deliberation that this whitethorn beryllium really a bully clip to truly deliberation cautiously astir whether we volition proceed with this nonrecreational investor-only requirement.

The authorities of Hong Kong has been expanding efforts to lure backmost fintech companies that near the metropolis owed to strict regulations.

The SFC introduced a regulatory model for crypto trading platforms successful November 2019. Centralized exchanges that supply crypto trading services and mean to connection trading of astatine slightest 1 information token whitethorn use to the SFC for a license. “The licensee indispensable lone supply services to nonrecreational investors,” the regulator clarified. In December 2020, the SFC issued its archetypal licence to a integer plus trading platform. At the clip of writing, OSL Digital Securities Ltd. is the lone licensee listed connected the regulator’s website.

Wong further noted that the SFC has relaxed immoderate requirements to let retail investors to put successful crypto assets implicit the past twelvemonth and the regulator is besides reviewing rules connected whether to let retail investors to put successful exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with crypto exposure.

The SFC volition question nationalist comments connected allowing retail investors to straight put successful cryptocurrencies aboriginal this year, the manager revealed, adding that Hong Kong volition soon present a mandatory licensing requirement for crypto trading platforms.

Do you deliberation Hong Kong should let retail investors to commercialized crypto? Let america cognize successful the comments conception below.

Kevin Helms

A pupil of Austrian Economics, Kevin recovered Bitcoin successful 2011 and has been an evangelist ever since. His interests prevarication successful Bitcoin security, open-source systems, web effects and the intersection betwixt economics and cryptography.

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