8 hours ago
Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission has fixed a greenish airy for virtual plus trading platforms (VATPs) and authorized virtual plus funds to connection staking services.
Apr 7, 2025, 6:54 a.m.
Hong Kong's securities regulator, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), laid retired caller guidance that would let licensed crypto exchanges and funds to connection staking services successful the city.
Staking offers crypto holders a mode of putting their integer assets to enactment and earning passive income without selling them. Staking is integral to Proof of Stake (PoS) networks arsenic it provides information and immutability.
In a property merchandise connected Monday, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) acknowledged the dual relation staking tin play, enhancing blockchain web information and providing regulated yield-generating opportunities for investors, arsenic it continues to instrumentality its broader strategy of increasing Hong Kong's integer plus assemblage done its "ASPIRe" roadmap.
"Broadening the suite of regulated services and products is important to prolong the steadfast advancement of Hong Kong’s virtual plus ecosystem," said Julia Leung, SFC's Chief Executive Officer, successful a release. "But the broadening indispensable beryllium done successful a regulated situation wherever the information of lawsuit virtual assets continues to beryllium beforehand and center."
In a circular explaining the rules astir staking, the SFC said that Virtual Asset Trading Platforms (VATPs), which is what the regulator calls licensed exchanges, indispensable clasp implicit power of clients' assets, explicitly prohibiting the outsourcing of staking to a third-party.
Platforms volition besides beryllium required to transparently disclose each associated risks, including imaginable vulnerabilities similar blockchain errors, hacking, oregon validator inactivity.
VATPs, according to the rules, indispensable intelligibly pass clients of the processes involved, fees, minimum lock-up durations, and arrangements for concern continuity during disruptions.
Authorized virtual plus funds, meanwhile, are mandated to involvement lone via licensed platforms oregon authorized institutions, with an enforced headdress to negociate liquidity risks, further underscoring the regulator's cautious yet supportive approach.
This is successful opposition to Singapore, Hong Kong's rival fiscal halfway successful the region, which banned retail staking successful 2023, citing the request for "investor protection."
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continues to restrict staking done enforcement actions, though it's facing increasing calls from a bipartisan radical of senators to easiness its stance.
Meanwhile, respective states, including astir precocious Illinois, person dropped staking lawsuits against Coinbase, which was first deed with aggregate lawsuits successful 2023.
Sam Reynolds
Sam Reynolds is simply a elder newsman based successful Asia. Sam was portion of the CoinDesk squad that won the 2023 Gerald Loeb grant successful the breaking quality class for sum of FTX's collapse. Prior to CoinDesk, helium was a newsman with Blockworks and a semiconductor expert with IDC.
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