PANews reported on February 20 that according to the Hong Kong Ta Kung Pao, Hong Kong Legislative Council member Regina Ip said that Hong Kong is currently the only place in the country that can develop cryptocurrency transactions. Although the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau of the SAR government issued a policy declaration on the development of virtual assets in Hong Kong as early as October 2022, clarifying the government’s policy stance and guidelines for developing a vibrant virtual asset industry and ecosystem for Hong Kong, the relevant policy framework has been established, and the Securities and Futures Commission has also implemented a virtual asset trading platform licensing system. However, the scale of the industry is still relatively small, and we must continue to actively promote it and improve the relevant regulatory framework as soon as possible. I believe there is room for further relaxation of supervision to allow the industry to grow bigger.
Lau added that the fintech industry is worthy of development in Hong Kong because it is "asset light", which means that there is no need to invest in large amounts of infrastructure, build many roads, or fill a lot of land. It relies on technology, just as the cryptocurrency Bitcoin was created with technology, using Blockchain, which is very suitable for Hong Kong.
