Hong Kong's recently proposed regulatory restrictions will facilitate development of the cryptocurrency industry, said in a speech at StartmeupHK Festival, Christopher Hui, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB). Hui says the proposed regulatory framework will allow foreign incorporated companies to obtain a license as a virtual asset services provider in Hong Kong.
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"The Government sees both risks and opportunities from this new trend, and we are of the view that a proper regulatory system could facilitate development and at the same time protect investors and adhere to international regulatory standards," Hui added.
As iHodl earlier reported, the regulatory rules proposed by Hong Kong's FSTB could encourage not only financial crimes, but also trigger retail investors' outflow onto the gray digital platform, warns the industry body Global Digital Finance (GDF) which represents such cryptocurrency exchanges as Coinbase, Huobi, BitMEX, and OKCoin.
The GDF's Advisory Council Chairman, Malcolm Wright, added that restricting crypto trading to professional investors only "is different to what we have seen in other jurisdictions." Moreover, the potential ban might isolate from the cryptocurrency market approximately 93% of the city's population as the number of professional investors in Hong Kong is estimated at 7%.
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