Hong Kong Opening Doors to Crypto Trading is a Big Move for China: Justin Sun

Updated: 01 June 2023

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Hong Kong recently decided to allow retail traders to buy and sell digital currencies, attempting to turn the country into a new digital asset hub in the region.

It created a specialized license for crypto exchanges and trading platforms that must be obtained in order for them to offer their services to local users.

The founder of Tron (TRX), Justin Sun, commented on the decision, stating that it represents a very big step for crypto in China.

China is generally known for being rather unfriendly toward the crypto industry.

In the past, the country has banned using crypto in any way, and it even cracked down on crypto miners, eventually forcing them to leave the country.

Hong Kong is taking a major step toward opening up to crypto.

With this new development, Sun also mentioned that his crypto exchange, Huobi, intends to try and onboard Hong Kong residents starting on Thursday, June 1st.

According to the Hong Kong Monetary Advisory, crypto companies are free to onboard customers during the 18-month grace period that they have to procure licenses.

After that, firms that do not obtain a license will not be allowed to operate.

Hong Kong opens its doors to crypto after a major disruption to its economy

Hong Kong’s move to introduce crypto trading comes at a time when its economy and reputation as a fintech hub were shaken as a consequence of the pandemic.

The lockdowns have affected it strongly, and the regulatory crackdowns pushed matters even further in the wrong direction.

Many crypto startups left or shut down under the circumstances, disrupting the country’s economy and status.

This is why Sun said that

I think this is a very big step for crypto in China, because this is, of course, the first jurisdiction in China to legalize crypto trading. And we’ve seen this has been experimented on for the whole China crypto operation.

Sun further noted that the beauty of the new crypto policy in Hong Kong lies in the fact that even China’s citizens can get involved and start trading on new, soon-to-be-licensed exchanges. However, a requirement will be for them to have Hong Kong residency.

Mainland China is very strict when it comes to its own crypto laws, to the point where anything but owning crypto is now illegal.

However, Hong Kong is an exception as a Special Administrative Region.

It is governed under the principle of one country, two systems, so it has certain autonomy that other regions of China do not.

With the new policy, individual investors will be allowed to buy and sell certain digital assets — mostly larger cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

In order to legally offer them, exchanges will need to register with the SFC and get a license or face major penalties.

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