Despite the current industry crisis brought on by the FTX collapse, the Hong Kong government is still committed to building out the infrastructure for cryptocurrencies. However, the country has gradually extended its support for cryptocurrencies, positioning itself to overtake all other nations in the field by 2022.
Paul Chan, the financial secretary for Hong Kong, claims that in 2023, local regulators and the government will be willing to work with fintech and cryptocurrency startups.
Chan stated that Hong Kong has evolved into a foundation connecting high-quality virtual asset enterprises while speaking at an event organized by the government-run incubator Cyberport, according to a report from the public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) on January 9.
According to the financial secretary, over the past two months, businesses involved in the cryptocurrency industry have requested the Hong Kong government to relocate their international headquarters to Hong Kong. In addition, Chan noted that several business organizations desired to increase their operations in Hong Kong or to list on regional markets.
The official claims that Hong Kong is making every effort to supervise the cryptocurrency market appropriately to unleash the potential of technologies like Web3.
He added that in December, lawmakers in Hong Kong passed legislation creating a licensing framework for companies that provide services related to virtual assets. The new legal framework is intended to give bitcoin exchanges the same level of market recognition as the one that is now applied to traditional financial institutions.
Chen allegedly mentioned several pilot projects by Hong Kong authorities and officials to examine the potential benefits of virtual assets and look into related uses during the event. He mentioned that one of the projects entails the Hong Kong government issuing tokenized green bonds for institutional investors to purchase.