Hong Kong authorities will discuss the possibility of including bitcoin in the region’s reserves

What’s new? Johnny Ng, a member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council, intends to open talks with “different stakeholders” to explore the possibility of including bitcoin in the region’s financial reserves. The lawmaker’s statement follows former US President Donald Trump’s speech at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, where he promised to create a strategic BTC reserve if re-elected.

Source: X.com

What else is known? In his X-account, Johnny Ng noted that bitcoin’s global acceptance is steadily increasing and the public is beginning to see the asset as digital gold. As such, he believes that the inclusion of the first cryptocurrency in the reserves should be considered if it qualifies.

The official notes that Web 3.0 and blockchain technology represent technological and application innovation, so Hong Kong should further develop the ecosystem to attract competitive public networks, exchanges, and other projects to promote the technological development of the industry.

“Now Hong Kong is at the forefront of the region in terms of compliant regulation and industry development, and I believe the HKSAR government will open the market in a gradual, progressive and responsible manner,” the politician concluded.

Hong Kong, as a special administrative region of the PRC, has its own cryptocurrency laws, which are different from mainland China, where crypto transactions and mining are banned. Last year, the local government launched an initiative to turn Hong Kong into a crypto hub, introduced a licensing regime for crypto exchanges, and allowed them to serve retail customers.

In April this year, the Hong Kong regulator allowed bitcoin and Ethereum-based spot exchange traded funds (ETFs) to enter the market. Thus, spot ETH ETFs appeared here earlier than in the United States: trading in shares of such funds began on US exchanges only on July 23.

Johnny Ng was one of those who actively called for the approval of crypto funds as early as possible, which would allow Hong Kong to lead the development of the entire industry through innovative policies. He has also pushed for the need to educate the public on how to deal with virtual assets.

In June, his counterpart Duncan Chiu expressed concern that overly strict licensing rules were discouraging major global exchanges from entering Hong Kong. Global platforms such as OKX, Gate, and HTX have withdrawn their applications for licenses to operate in the local market.