Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Fee has outlined a brand new ASPIRe roadmap for asset regulation. The company’s assertion particulars a framework that units parameters for market entry, investor safety, and operational transparency within the digital asset house.
Per an SFC doc, the plan introduces a five-pillar “ASPIRe” method—entry, Safeguards, Merchandise, Infrastructure, and Relationships—to deal with the challenges posed by a worldwide market valued at over $3 trillion in 2024.
The roadmap outlines 12 initiatives designed to streamline licensing for over‐the‐counter buying and selling and custody providers, modify necessities for storage and know-how, and make clear product categorization for institutional and retail contributors.
The doc explains that regulatory readability will likely be expanded by new licensing regimes that invite world buying and selling platforms and liquidity suppliers to function below standardized guidelines. This method applies the “identical enterprise, identical dangers, identical guidelines” precept already utilized in Hong Kong’s digital asset buying and selling heart, which has issued licenses to 9 platforms and has extra functions pending evaluation.
Measures below the plan embody transitioning to know-how‐impartial, outcome-based requirements for asset custody whereas refining insurance coverage and compensation frameworks to deal with operational dangers and scale back obstacles for liquidity suppliers.
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On the ongoing Consensus Hong Kong 2025 convention, SFC CEO Julia Leung outlined how these initiatives will help the town’s technique to ascertain itself as a hub for digital property.
In associated developments, Normal Chartered’s Hong Kong division, Animoca Manufacturers, and HKT have partnered to use for a license to concern a Hong Kong dollar-backed stablecoin. Additional, the New Capital Funding Entrant Scheme seems open to accepting circumstances the place cryptocurrencies function proof of wealth.
The SFC’s technique aligns with worldwide efforts to unify regulatory requirements, drawing on steering from our bodies such because the Monetary Motion Activity Drive and IOSCO.
The roadmap additionally emphasizes investor training and clear engagement. By clarifying onboarding processes and product categorization, the SFC goals to create a market atmosphere the place retail and institutional traders can take part with improved confidence. Enhanced surveillance, reporting mechanisms, and cross-agency collaboration are integral to the plan, because the SFC works to detect irregularities and handle dangers in a fragmented liquidity panorama.
The roadmap units an outlined course for increasing Hong Kong’s function in digital asset regulation by integrating regulatory measures that deal with compliance and market forces. The SFC acknowledged that it’ll implement the outlined initiatives below its regulatory rules.
