• Lu Tingkuang thinks Hong Kong has a convenient crypto licensing regime.

  • Hong Kong’s crypto-asset license permits holders to provide services for crypto and STOs.

  • Tingkunag believes Hong Kong is careful in approaching the digital assets industry.

The co-founder and chief strategy officer of HKbitEX, Lu Tingkuang, thinks Hong Kong has a more convenient crypto licensing regime than places like Singapore and the U.S. According to Tingkuang, the Hong Kong crypto-asset license permits holders to provide trading services for both cryptocurrencies and security tokens (STOs).

Meanwhile, the FinTech expert highlighted that other countries’ regulators provide licenses for only one, and not both categories of assets. For instance, he cited the U.S.-listed Coinbase, whose license only permits the trading of crypto assets. 

In his presentation, Tingkuang noted that most people think Hong Kong is conservative in developing its virtual assets market. Hence, the departure of several crypto giants, who got frustrated and moved away from the region. Contrarily, the HKbitEX chief strategy officer believes Hong Kong is only careful in its approach to the industry. He noted regional regulators were careful before deploying, confirming they have observed positive results in recent years.

To explain his view, Tingkuang highlighted that in February last year, practitioners sold HK$800 million in tokenized green bonds under the Government Green Bond Program (Green Bond Program), with a one-year term and a yield of 4.05%. According to him, that exercise set a global record, as it was the first tokenized green bond issued by any government.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong sold green bonds valued at approximately HK$6 million. The government denominated the sold bonds in Hong Kong dollars, RMB, U.S. dollars, and euros, with subscriptions cutting across a wide range of global institutional investors.

Tingkuang observed an acceleration in tokenized securities development in the private market. He cited a few examples, including Taiji Capital, which launched the issuance of real estate fund securities tokens for “professional investors” last year, bringing revolutionary changes to the financing model of the real estate industry. Tingkuang also mentioned the Chinese securities firm GF Securities (Hong Kong), which successfully issued tokenized securities related to short-term commercial paper in January this year.

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