Hong Kong to Adopt a Strategy for ‘Proper Regulation’ of Web3
- The Financial Secretary of Hong Kong said that he plans to adopt a strategy that emphasizes both “proper regulation” and “promoting development.”
- The Secretary promised to ensure financial security and prevent systemic risks by educating investors and imposing anti-money laundering laws.
- The Secretary has also allocated around $50 million to Cyberport in the new budget to accelerate the development of the Web3 ecosystem in the region.
- A plan to introduce a licensing system for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) in June this year under the principle of “same activities, same risks, same regulation.”
Hong Kong has become one of the more crypto-friendly states in the world after the government adopted a pro-crypto stance coupled with sound regulation to develop the crypto community in the special administrative region of China. The Financial Secretary of the region, Paul Chan, published an article recently stating that the plan is to adopt a strategy for “proper regulation” and “promotion of development” of the Web3 industry in the city.
In the article published on April 9, Chan stated that “we must take the trend and work together to develop a new track for Hong Kong’s economic development and play new advantages.” The Hong Kong Financial Secretary noted that the region has seen an impressive amount of development in the Web3 space in the recent period following the recent surge in the price of multiple crypto coins.
“In the Budget, I proposed three major directions to promote the high-quality development of Hong Kong. Among them, the digital economy and the application of the third-generation Internet (Web3) have great development potential and have aroused positive responses from the society. This week alone, at least four large-scale seminars or carnivals related to Web3, digital economy, financial technology, etc. were held in Hong Kong, and some of them are expected to have more than 10,000 physical participants,” said Chan.
Chan also noted that on Thursday and Friday, the district government along with the digital port will jointly host the 2023 Digital Economic Summit, where representatives of multiple sectors, such as finance, professional services, environmental protection, business, and academia, will converge to discuss Web3 development.
The goal of this summit, to be held in Hong Kong, is to analyze relevant global and regional development prospects. It is crucial to note that another event will be hosted in the city on the topic of Web3, which will focus on blockchain development and its applications, wallets, digital assets, payment tools, and security audits.
“In the next stage, market participants need to develop blockchain technology more deeply, so that its characteristics and advantages of transparency, efficiency, security, disintermediation, de-platformization, and low cost can find wider application scenarios and solve more problems. There are pain points in the business model and even problems such as breaking monopoly, so that users can share the economic value of data more widely, and bring leapfrog progress to the real economy,” noted Chan.
According to the Hong Kong Financial Secretary, in order for Web3 to steadily take the road of innovative development, the government plans to adopt a strategy that emphasizes both “proper regulation” and “promoting development.” The Secretary promised to ensure financial security and prevent systemic risks by educating investors and imposing anti-money laundering laws.
The plan is to introduce a licensing system for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) in June this year under the principle of “same activities, same risks, same regulation.” There are also studies being conducted regarding the regulation of stablecoins to ensure the sustainable and responsible development of the virtual asset industry. It is important to mention here that Hong Kong authorities have condemned the usage of foreign crypto exchanges by investors.
The Hong Kong Financial Secretary has also allocated around $50 million to Cyberport in the new budget to accelerate the development of the Web3 ecosystem in the region. The goal is to hold international large-scale seminars, “so that the industry and enterprises can better grasp cutting-edge developments and promote cross-sector business cooperation and organize more youth workshops, etc.”
As reported earlier by BitcoinWisdom, the Hong Kong authorities are working to introduce new crypto laws that will distinguish the region from mainland China. There are rumors that crypto trading might get legalized in the region.
A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.
