Hong Kong Financial News

Hong Kong — officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China — is a city of over seven million residents on the eastern Pearl River Delta in South China. The city is known for being pro-innovation and technology, and over the past year, it has introduced legislation to promote and adopt cryptocurrencies.

Developed to address multiple use cases including wholesale and retail CBDCs on a private ledger or issuing a stablecoin, the Ripple platform comprises ledger technology, issuer capabilities for minting, distribution, redemption and destruction of tokens, inter-institutional settlement and distribution functions, and end-user wallets. Ripple is currently engaged in CBDC and stablecoin pilots with the Republic of Palau, the Central Bank of Montenegro and the Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan.

China's perspective on web3 has come to light through a recently released white paper that suggests China is open to incorporating web3 into its future internet.

Major crypto exchange Gate.io has threatened to take legal measures against those spreading rumors of its possible bankruptcy. 

A leading Hong Kong-based blockchain gaming and Web3 investor, Animoca Brands, has delayed its financial report since 2020.

Momentum in crypto markets shows no sign of slowing down, as Hong Kong Inu ($HONG) explodes +50,000% in earth-shattering pump dawning a return to February's Chinese narrative.

Hong Kong's financial regulator finally implemented its new regulatory framework for crypto on the first of June.

Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz has described the broader crypto market as being “lackadaisical” — or lacking enthusiasm — due mainly to a shying away of institutional investors from cryptocurrencies.

British multinational bank Standard Chartered and PwC China have teamed up to produce a white paper on applications for central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the so-called Greater Bay Area of China – Guangdong Province, Hong Kong and Macao. Programmability will make all the difference, they concluded.

First Digital Group, a Hong Kong-based qualified custodian and trust company, announced the launch of its First Digital USD (FDUSD) United States dollar-pegged stablecoin on June 1. The new stablecoin is programmable and described as being capable of executing contracts, escrow services and insurance without intermediaries. It will operate on the BNB Smart Chain.

The 2023 crypto cycle has been dominated by eye-catching crypto narratives garnering immense traction - sending low-cap altcoins surging. 

Hong Kong has decided to let retail investors trade cryptocurrency under its new regulatory regime because «virtual assets are going to stay», the city's minister overseeing financial services said Tuesday.Cryptocurrencies have been banned in mainland China since 2021, but the former British colony, which has a separate financial system and regulators, has announced plans to become a major digital asset hub. From June 1, authorities will begin accepting applications for licences from cryptocurrency exchanges that will allow them to sell major tokens including bitcoin and ether to individual traders. «Despite the potential risks involved, (virtual assets) also carries with it fundamental value,» Christopher Hui, Hong Kong's secretary for financial services and the treasury, told AFP in an interview.

Centralized crypto exchange Gate.io denied rumors of illiquidity on May 31, stating that “there are no issues with our operations or withdrawals as rumored.” The statement comes after numerous Twitter channels had alleged that the exchange was experiencing insolvency due to an alleged connection between it and the cross-chain router protocol Multichain (MULTI).

In this week’s newsletter, read about some of the most popular nonfungible token (NFT) collections and top metaverse properties taking massive price hits in 2023. Check out how the Hong Kong Police Force launched its own metaverse platform, and how Reddit’s digital collectibles have managed to onboard almost 10 million users to the crypto and NFT space. In other news, infamous crypto hater Peter Schiff has launched his own NFT collection on Bitcoin Ordinals. 

Huobi has become the first member of the Hong Kong Virtual Assets Consortium (HKVAC), the Seychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange announced on May 31. The new organization promises to provide a ratings service and indexes when it is fully launched.

On May 31, Tether (USDT) tokens issued on the Tron blockchain reached another all-time high of $46 billion, compared to $36.8 billion for Ethereum, accounting for over 60% of USDT’s circulating supply. The milestone comes on the fifth-anniversary launch of the Tron mainnet.

Both Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have strengthened ties after their respective central banks (CBUAE) and monetary authorities (HKMA) agreed to join forces on crypto regulation earlier this week.

Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.__________

A Trust Reserve stablecoin team was detained by police in China on May 29, according to PANews. 

Under the new rules from the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE), the licensed financial institutions (LFIs) would be required to identify and verify the identities of all customers. The update will come into effect “within a month,” that is, by the end of June. 

The Chinese government continues to crack down on the cryptocurrency industry with a new investigation targeting a major Chinese yuan stablecoin issuer.