Hong Kong brings law to lawless crypto. Others can, too: Andy Mukherjee
The Asian financial center’s roadmap — an updated version was published last month — could serve as a blueprint for the US Securities and Exchange Commission, currently consulting the public to develop a “workable regulatory framework” for digital coins.
It’s time to stop the pointless fight between regulators and the industry about which virtual assets are securities, and which aren’t. To build the public’s trust in what is already a $70 trillion annual market for tokens changing hands, it’s simply more practical to hold up the firms dealing in them to the same standards as their much older cousins from the world of regular banking, broking and investment management.
Reliability of traditional finance, combined with the efficiency of blockchain. That has been Hong Kong’s mantra, and it seems to be producing results. Some of the city’s largest banks are starting to flex their muscle in the brave new world of virtual assets, bringing them respectability and helping them go mainstream.
Standard Chartered Plc recently announced plans to offer a Hong Kong dollar stablecoin, a digital clone of the local currency. HSBC Holdings Plc already allows customers to own fractions of gold stored in its vaults. The bank has also been toying
