According to Elizabeth Wong, head of Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), “We’ve had four years of experience in regulating this industry … We think that this may be actually a good time to really think carefully about whether we will continue with this professional investor-only requirement.”
Hong Kong's SFC aims to introduce a bill that will allow crypto platforms to directly offer their services to retail investors. Wong claimed that the SFC will seek public opinion for passing this bill later this year.
Interestingly, unlike mainland China, trading crypto assets is not illegal in Hong Kong.
Earlier, investing in cryptocurrencies for Hong Kong-based clients was limited to trading on centralized exchanges. Moreover, only corporate investors, whose portfolios consisted of at least $1M, were allowed to invest in crypto.
Now, the SFC is considering removing this requirement and permitting all “retail investors” to trade crypto.
It is worth noting that Hong Kong regulators have taken some crypto-friendly measures in recent times. In January, the SFC introduced a policy to allow investors to purchase digital asset-based derivative products.
The SFC is also expected to release a regulatory framework for crypto tokens and NFTs during the upcoming Fintech Week scheduled from October 31 to November 4.
