Hong Kong

Hong Kong indicated that crypto companies drawn by the city’s push to create a digital-asset hub should expect an exacting regulatory regime, Bloomberg News reported. “Our regulation will be tight,” Hong Kong Monetary Authority Chief Executive Eddie Yue said in an interview at the Bloomberg Wealth Asia Summit on Tuesday. “We will let them create the ecosystem here and that actually brings a lot of excitement.

Hong Kong outlined a plan to let retail investors trade digital tokens like Bitcoin and Ether, taking a major step toward its goal of becoming a crypto hub in a policy shift that contrasts with a crackdown in the U.S., Bloomberg News reported. Individual investors would be allowed to trade larger coins on exchanges licensed by the Securities and Futures Commission, providing safeguards such as knowledge tests, risk profiles and reasonable limits on exposure are put in place, the regulator said in a consultation paper on Monday.

In October, Hong Kong rolled out the red carpet for crypto businesses to help revitalize the embattled financial hub. Signs are now emerging the push has under-the-radar backing from Beijing, providing impetus for mainland Chinese firms to return, Bloomberg News reported. Representatives from China’s Liaison Office and other officials have been frequent guests at the city’s crypto gatherings over the past months, swapping business cards and WeChat details. The encounters have been friendly, with officials checking on developments, asking for reports and in some cases making follow-up calls.

Potential buyers are inquiring about purchasing the struggling crypto lender Hodlnaut and its claims against bankrupt digital-asset exchange FTX, Bloomberg News reported. “Various parties who are interested in acquiring” Singapore-based Hodlnaut’s crypto platform and FTX claims have contacted the interim judicial managers overseeing the company after it sought protection from creditors, according to an affidavit seen by Bloomberg News. The judicial managers are in the process of signing non-disclosure agreements with the potential investors, the document shows.

Hong Kong is sticking with a plan to become Asia’s digital-asset capital despite the industry’s tarnished reputation, a stance drawing tentative interest from bruised crypto firms looking for paths to recovery, Bloomberg News reported. The city claims it will learn the lessons of a $2 trillion crypto market rout and a spate of global bankruptcies like the collapse of the FTX exchange to create a fresh regulatory framework that can protect investors and encourage growth.

Hong Kong securities watchdog will propose a subset of tokens it would allow for retail investors' trading, its chief executive said on Wednesday, as it presses on with a new regulatory regime that will make the city more friendly to crypto startups, Reuters reported. As investor protection will continue to be the focus of the new virtual asset service provider (VSAP) regime, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) will also seek public views about specific guardrails for retail trading, said Julia Leung, chief executive officer at the commision.

Hong Kong is making a pitch to multinational companies to list on its stock market, despite heightened tensions between China and the West, the Wall Street Journal reported. The city’s stock exchange hopes a new initiative that allows mainland Chinese investors to trade shares of international companies will present a compelling case for some of the world’s largest businesses to raise funds in the Asian financial hub.

A tender for the sale of embattled China Evergrande Group's headquarters in Hong Kong has lapsed again, two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday, because the offer prices and terms fell short of requirements, Reuters reported. Lenders to the office tower, China Evergrande Centre, valued at between HK$8 billion and HK$9 billion ($1.02 billion and $1.15 billion), appointed a receiver in September to seize the asset and tender it for sale with a bid deadline of Oct 31.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) on Thursday raised its base rate charged through the overnight discount window by 50 basis points to 4.75%, hours after the U.S. Federal Reserve delivered a rate hike of the same margin, Reuters reported. The U.S. central bank raised interest rates by half a percentage point and projected at least an additional 75 basis points of increases in borrowing costs by the end of 2023, as well as a rise in unemployment and a near-stalling of economic growth. "Rate hike in the U.S.