Christopher Hui, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury has defended the recent proposal by the city’s Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau to ban retail crypto trading. In a speech delivered at StartmeupHK virtual fintech summit on Thursday, Hui said that the proposal was in line with the government’s plan to properly police the emerging crypto market. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the FSTB issued a proposal after months of consultation, calling for a ban on retail crypto trading and the establishment of a strict regulatory regime for cryptocurrency exchanges. As part of the proposal set to …

Hong Kong regulators have moved to ban retail trading in Hong Kong after months of intense speculation about a likely prohibition. According to a report by Reuters on Friday, the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau of Hong Kong has released the results of its consultation on a possible retail crypto trading ban, which began back in November 2020. As part of its conclusions, Hong Kong’s FSTB called for a comprehensive licensing regime for crypto exchanges while restricting trading only to qualified investors. Per Hong Kong law, only individuals with portfolios worth 8 million Hong Kong dollars (about $1 million) …

The Digital Currency Institute of the People’s Bank of China and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority are quickly moving forward with their joint testing of the use of the digital yuan for cross-border payments. According to Bloomberg, this week, the HKMA staff confirmed that the first phase of testing for the currency’s cross-border use had been successful. The initial tests involved multiple parties, including selected merchants and a bank designated by mainland Chinese authorities. HKMA said that plans for the next phase of pilots are already underway: “We have tested the use of the related app, system connectivity and certain …

Babel Finance, a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency financial services provider, has secured $40 million in venture capital financing to expand its offerings to more institutional clients. The Series A investment round was led by Zoo Capital, Sequoia Capital China, Dragonfly Capital, BAI Capital and Bertelsmann, and Tiger Global Management, the company announced Monday. Venture capital and private equity funds from North America, Asia and Europe participated in the raise. Flex Yang, CEO of Babel Finance, said the investment round will aid the company in meeting growing institutional demand for crypto assets: “The alliance with our new investors from traditional finance is …

In the waters off Hong Kong International Authorities on Friday, Hong Kong Customs detected suspicious figures offloading cartons from a fishing boat to a nearby speedboat. While the men successfully fled, the authorities reportedly detained the fishing vessel and found a large batch of apparently smuggled goods: everything from dried shark fins and cosmetics to electronics. Notably, among these goods — worth an estimated $31 million in total — were reportedly a stash of over 300 Nvidia CMP 30HX graphics cards, a new line of GPUs dedicated to cryptocurrency mining, which Nvidia released earlier this year in order to ensure …

China has completed its first cross-border pilots of the digital yuan with Hong Kong. Wang Xin, director of the People’s Bank of China research bureau, said that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the PBoC have conducted technical tests on the cross-border use of China’s central bank digital currency. The official announced the news at a Thursday press conference hosted by the State Council Information Office of China, local news agency Sina Finance reports. The news comes shortly after Mu Changchun, head of the PBoC's digital currency research institute, proposed a set of global CBDC rules last week. Speaking at …

Crypto exchange Coinbase's institutional custody platform helped execute the purchase and custodying of roughly $90 million of Bitcoin and Ether for Chinese tech company Meitu. In a blog from Coinbase today, the United States-based crypto exchange said Meitu used its services to execute up to $90 million worth of crypto transactions “across multiple marketplaces with minimal market impact.” This month, the tech firm purchased 379 Bitcoin (BTC) for roughly $17.9 million and 15,000 Ether (ETH) for $22.1 million, followed by 386.08 BTC for $21.6 million and 16,000 ETH for $28.4 million. Coinbase Custody also provided cold storage for the digital …

Chinese tech company Meitu has announced the investment of a further $50 million into Ether and Bitcoin, taking its net spend on crypto up to roughly $90 million this month. The Hong Kong and China listed company purchased 386.08 BTC for $21.6 million, and 16,000 ETH for around $28.4 million, on March 17. The most recent announcement follows an initial cryptocurrency investment on March 5, in which the company acquired 15,000 ETH for around $22.1 million and roughly 379 BTC for approximately $17.9 million. In the latest announcement, the company noted that while cryptocurrency is still in its formative stages, …

Since March 1, 2020, the number of new Bitcoin ATMs installed worldwide is nearing 10,000. According to the latest data from Coin ATM Radar, the current number of machines stands at 16,835, a strong 57.5% increase, or 9,683 new machines, as compared with 7,152 last year. Back in Nov. 2020, Cointelegraph had reported a striking year-on-year increase of 80%. As previously, the vast majority of machines continue to be located in the United States, where 81% (13,699 out of 16,835 machines globally) are installed. Within the U.S., growth has been unparalleled, rising by 177% since March 1, 2020, or from …

Huobi, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchange platforms in China, appears to be pursuing further expansion of its business following the recent regulatory clearance in Hong Kong. According to an official announcement by Huobi Technology Holdings Ltd., the company’s asset management subsidiary has secured approval from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission to launch a cryptocurrency asset management portfolio. The news is a follow-up to Huobi securing “Type 4” and “Type 9” licenses from the SFC back in July 2020. In Hong Kong, a Type 4 license enables a company to act as a securities investment adviser while a …

Crypto industry actors in Hong Kong have been trying to push back against a forthcoming law that would restrict legal cryptocurrency trading to professional investors, locking out 93% of the local population from the market. In comments to the South China Morning Post published on Monday, industry body Global Digital Finance warned that the proposed law would likely push retail traders to embrace unregulated platforms. Global Digital Finance represents cryptocurrency exchanges such as BitMEX, Huobi, Coinbase and OKCoin and has been at the forefront of industry efforts to push back against the forthcoming legislation. Hong Kong's Financial Services and the …

In a single purchase, Jehan Chu, co-founder of Hong Kong-based crypto investment firm Kenetic Capital, has bought the ability to issue a seemingly unlimited number of "NFT" subdomains on the Handshake blockchain. According to Kenetic, Chu purchased the .NFT domain extension for $84,000, or roughly 680,000 Handshake (HNS) tokens at the time, brokered through the Namebase marketplace. The crypto investor reportedly owns more than 1,300 Handshake domains. He said he bought the extension while observing a rising interest in nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, across the crypto ecosystem. “I believe NFTs are the true missing link between online and offline objects, …