Hong Kong is gearing up to compete for “global liquidity” in the virtual asset industry, the city’s regulators said on Wednesday at Consensus, one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency conferences, as the Asian financial centre sees some success attracting international business.
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“We have to think how are we going to provide a regulatory framework for growth which allows for responsible innovation … and tapping into global liquidity,” SFC Chief Executive Julia Leung said during a panel discussion.
The SFC on Tuesday granted a virtual asset trading platform licence to New York-based Bullish, the first international cryptocurrency exchange to get the licence in Hong Kong. The licence came on the first day of Consensus Hong Kong, which is organised by Bullish subsidiary CoinDesk.
The main conference kicked off on Wednesday, when crypto industry heavyweights including Binance CEO Richard Teng and Tron founder Justin Sun spoke at the event at the Wan Chai Exhibition Centre. Consensus Hong Kong is the first major expansion of one of the leading crypto conferences since Bullish acquired the crypto news organisation CoinDesk in 2023.
Coinciding with Consensus, the SFC unveiled a new road map with twelve initiatives designed to “future-proof” Hong Kong’s virtual asset ecosystem. Under the framework, Hong Kong aims to expand product offerings, act as a bridge to traditional finance and “attract global platforms, order flows and liquidity providers”.
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The regulator noted that the city’s virtual asset market currently “remains restrictive in scope”, impacting investor choice.