On February 20, crypto alternate Huobi revealed its plans to shift Asia’s headquarters from Singapore to Hong Kong. This transfer comes after Hong Kong’s Securities and Future Buying and selling Fee (SFC) proposed a brand new licensing regime permitting crypto exchanges to serve retail buyers with large-cap cash.
The latest FTX downfall final November worsened the crypto market state of affairs main many crypto firms to close down their platforms. And because the FTX saga was the second collapse after the TerraLuna fiasco in Could 2022, it alerted international regulators, implying stricter crypto rules to forestall a repeat.
In the meantime, Hong Kong’s regulators took a step ahead to make the nation a crypto hub by introducing crypto-friendly insurance policies. That’s why crypto firms are lined as much as win approval from SFC to capitalize on the optimistic regulatory transfer of the regime.
Justin Solar, founding father of the Tron (TRX) cryptocurrency and advisor on the Huobi alternate, added in a press release:
These three years, Hong Kong’s regulatory framework has seen a variety of change for the higher, so I’m very assured in the way forward for crypto compliance in Asia, Hong Kong and hopefully China,
Huobi To Set up A New Platform In Hong Kong
Huobi additionally plans to ascertain a brand new crypto alternate within the metropolis to be named Houbi Hong Kong. The platform’s major aim shall be to scale up its buying and selling companies for institutional buyers and high-net-worth people. Justin Solar is assured about getting approval within the Chinese language particular administrative area, as Huobi utilized for the license final yr too. Nevertheless it failed to satisfy the stricter rules necessities of that point, and solely two companies managed to get approvals.
Whereas talking at an interview with Nikkei Asia, Solar highlighted that Huobi might enhance its worker rely from 50 to 200 for its Hong Kong-based subsidiary. He cited newly proposed crypto-friendly insurance policies as the one motive behind this transfer.
Notably, Huobi introduced a 20% workforce lower in January as a part of the corporate’s efforts to regulate the platform’s infrastructure consistent with the present market state of affairs. Primarily, the corporate decreased its worker rely after Justin Solar took management of the platform in October.
Whereas pointing to the “latest turmoil”, Julia Leung, CEO at SFC, highlighted the downfall of large gamers like FTX. She pressed the necessity for transparency within the crypto ecosystem and investor safety as the highest precedence.
In gentle of the latest turmoil and the collapse of some main crypto buying and selling platforms around the globe, there may be clear consensus amongst regulators globally for regulation within the digital asset area to make sure buyers are adequately protected and key dangers are successfully managed.
Featured picture from Pixabay and chart from TradingView.com