Hongkong prefers crypto over Chinese Digital Yuan, pushes for regulation

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The Asian financial hotspot HongKong has just exited it’s third wave of the coronavirus pandemic. Mask wearing is obligatory in the city where taking Covid-19 precaution is now as normal as taking your shoes to walk out of the door. Temperature checks are omnipresent and anyone with symptoms not going into a voluntary quarantine is considered a social outcast.

Regulatory Radar

As to obeying and following everything that China does, Hongkong’s population is still rebellious though. The latest example came in the form of requesting that all cryptocurrency trading be regulated, and thus in sort preferring Bitcoin and Ethereum over any Digital Yuan which the Beijing government may be pushing for.

#HongKong Market Watchdog to Ban Retail Investors & Regulate All #Crypto Trading Platformshttps://t.co/rpZm6FZC7O

— ₿EG News - BitcoinExchangeGuide (@bitcoinsguide) November 3, 2020

The Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) will be closely watched as it stands to become the first city-state in Asia to go full regulatory for all crypto platforms. In a speech, the CEO of the SFC, Mr Ashley Alder, noted that the move was necessary as:

Under the current legislative framework if a platform operator is really determined to operate completely off the regulatory radar it can do so simply by ensuring that its traded crypto assets are not within the legal definition of a security.

BREAKING: Hong Kong will require all #crypto exchanges to be regulated, SFC announced at the Hong Kong FinTech Week.@Invest Hong Kong @FintechHK @FINNOVASIA#HKFTW #InvestHK #FintechHK #Hongkong #startups #fintech #hkfintechweek pic.twitter.com/GR5Vh5Y8Mu

— contentworks (@_contentworks) November 3, 2020

Looks like in Asia, HongKong is leading the way when it comes to regulation. We’re sure that the ECB’s Christine Lagarde and the Federal Reserve’s Jerome Powell are watching closely to see how HongKong will do this. Many crypto platforms which have their Asian headquarters in the city state have not yet reacted.