Hong Kong Financial News

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

Two banks from Sweden and France announced the launch of a new digital bond platform built on blockchain technology. The platform will enable institutional clients to issue, trade, and settle bonds digitally, providing a more efficient and secure process compared to traditional methods.

The first phase of the strategy, which is expected to take place over the next 12 to 15 months, comprises three primary pillars. These include initiating real-value cross-border CBDC transactions for international trade settlement, proof-of-concept work for bilateral CBDC bridges with India, and finally, proof-of-concept work for domestic CBDC issuance covering wholesale and retail usage.

HONG KONG—China’s property market appears to have stabilized after a two-year downturn. But one problem continues to hold back its recovery: a major oversupply of unsold apartments.

INX has launched its first securities token issued by a public company, according to an Apr. 3 announcement from the tokenization platform.

HONG KONG—China’s property market appears to have stabilized after a two-year downturn. But one problem continues to hold back its recovery: a major oversupply of unsold apartments.

The ongoing regulatory crackdown on crypto in the US could boost Hong Kong in its bid to become a new hub for the crypto industry. 

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

In a warning letter released on Friday, Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) said that a number of foreign cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance, Bybit, MEXC Global and Bitget, have been conducting business in the country without proper registration, violating the nation's fund settlement laws.

Billionaire crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun has denied claims that he is considering divesting his stake in the global cryptocurrency exchange Huobi. 

The U.S. government's frosty approach to cryptocurrency regulation could ultimately see the industry’s “center of gravity” shift to Hong Kong, says Ambre Soubiran, the CEO of Paris-based institutional crypto market data provider Kaiko.

Huobi Global, a cryptocurrency exchange, has declared a strategic partnership with Gala Games, a blockchain-based play-to-earn gaming platform. 

Central bank digital currency (CBDC) adoption continues apace in China – where the digital yuan is breaking new ground in the worlds of import taxation and cross-border commerce.

blockchain technology. Even amid the turmoil set off by interest rate hikes and quantitative tightening, the global bond market, which is bigger in size than equities yet off the radar for retail investors, appears to have earmarked 2023 to leverage blockchain technology. A few days ago, Switzerland-based Obligate executed a corporate bond issued by a Swiss commodity trading firm on Polygon’s blockchain platform, thus marking the first bond issuance that involved no intermediary or traditional rails. The bond was issued and executed by the smart contract. Earlier in February, the Hong Kong government issued the world’s state-issued tokenized green bonds worth $102 million using blockchain technology as part of its push to restore its status as a global financial hub. In Germany, engineering giant Siemens issued its first digital bond, worth $64 million, on a public blockchain.

Hong Kong is ramping up its efforts to become a regional fintech hub, with a new fund aiming to raise $100 million this year to invest in digital assets.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the new buzzword in the emerging tech scene after the release of OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT-4. However, opinions on this groundbreaking technology are mixed, with some claiming it is something to be feared. 

In light of Hong Kong’s commitment to developing cryptocurrency infrastructure, fintech official King Leung has visited Japan to talk with policymakers and regulators in Tokyo to better understand the idea around Web3 digital assets.

Regulated stablecoins are currently in the spotlight of policymakers as a panel of professionals in the digital regulatory space unpacks their predictions on the use of regulated stablecoins in the future at the World of Web (WOW) Summit in Hong Kong. 

A new Hong Kong-based fund is set to raise $100 million to invest in crypto companies as the city is accelerating toward its goal of becoming a global crypto hub with a more friendly regulatory stance. 

As Hong Kong is again opening up to the crypto market, local investors are launching a $100 million fund to finance the digital industry. The new fund, ProDigital Future, will aim at early-stage Web3 companies oriented at the regional market. 

DeFi execs at a WOW Summit panel argued that implementing “Know Your Customer” (KYC) measures will tackle the “biggest issue” in decentralized finance (DeFi), which is hackers laundering millions of stolen funds into “clean money.”