The Hong Kong securities and futures fee (SFC) will reportedly challenge licenses to at the least eight crypto corporations this yr. The SFC’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (modification) ordinance will take impact in June.
SFC to greenlight crypto corporations
As a part of bigger plans to rework itself right into a hotbed for web3 innovation, Hong Kong is placing preparations in prime gear to begin approving the appliance of crypto-focused companies eager about establishing operations within the area.
Per sources near the newest improvement, the Hong Kong securities and futures fee (SFC), the area’s main monetary watchdog, which expanded its crypto oversight group final month, has signaled plans to license a minimal of eight web3 initiatives by the year-end.
Talking in the course of the Wow Summit in Hong Kong on March 29, Angelina Kwan, a former exec of the SFC, reiterated that the train is a part of the regulator’s crypto licensing regime beneath Hong Kong’s new anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (modification) ordinance scheduled to go stay in June.
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Uncertainties stay
Hong Kong’s embrace of bitcoin and different cryptocurrencies in latest months has made it a prime vacation spot for web3 corporations, with greater than 80 crypto market individuals, together with Huobi, OKX, and several other others at present in line to get approval from the SFC.
As reported by crypto.information in January, Leung Fung-yee, the CEO of the SFC clarified that retail merchants will solely have entry to extremely liquid digital property. Nevertheless, the official failed to say the precise cryptoassets that will probably be tradeable, although it’s very probably that bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) will make the listing.
Learn extra: Hong Kong SFC debates allowing retail investors to invest in crypto